New Hampshire mother Danielle Dauphinais was sentenced to prison for the murder of her son Elijah Lewis

A New Hampshire woman was sentenced Friday to 53 years to life in prison for beating, starving and exposing her 5-year-old son to drugs before his 19-pound body was found buried in a Massachusetts park in 2021.

“I'm so sorry, Elijah, for failing you as your mother,” Danielle Dauphinais said in court, reading a letter in which she recounted her life as an abused and abandoned child. She broke down crying and one of her lawyers finished reading it.

Dauphinais, 38, faced trial in Nashua but pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and other charges in the death of her son Elijah Lewis as part of a deal with prosecutors.

The public prosecutor's office had demanded a 55-year prison sentence. The defense demanded a minimum term of 35 years. Dauphinais also received three to seven additional years for lesser offenses.

Elijah's autopsy revealed that he suffered facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnutrition and pressure sores.

Prosecutors said Elijah was tortured and neglected.

He was locked in a bathroom tub for long periods, often naked, and monitored by video.

In the end he couldn't take it, they said, showing photos of him getting thinner over a 16-month period. In the last photo, one of his eyes was closed.

Dauphinais was divorced from Elijah's father, who had been caring for the boy in Arizona. He brought Elijah to her in New Hampshire in May 2020.

Her lawyers said the child had “serious psychiatric problems” and that neither parent had completed an assessment for him.

But Judge Charles Temple said the abusive and hateful text messages she sent to her boyfriend about her son and her actions were damning.

“You knew exactly what you did to Elijah. They killed him, hour after hour, day after day, month after month,” he said.

Dauphinais' boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded guilty in 2022 to manslaughter, second-degree assault, tampering with evidence and witness tampering in connection with the boy's death.

He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in prison.

Prosecutors read a series of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility toward Elijah and frustration when he did not behave according to their wishes.

“He said he wants food and he wants me to stop starving him because it's not nice,” one said. Another message said: “I'm going to kill him and I mean it,” and another said: “I hit him with the shower rod, that's all I did.”

Stapf had texted Dauphinais to give Elijah more food to “fatten him up.”

Defense attorney Benjamin Faulkner said Dauphinais' text messages were sent out of desperation because Elijah was exhibiting aggressive behavior that she couldn't handle while caring for another child.

She was also pregnant and abusing fentanyl and heroin.

Dauphinais said her ex-husband would not provide her with his insurance information to seek help.

Prosecutors said she shifted blame and responsibility onto the father and others.

“She did nothing to help Elijah,” said prosecutor Bethany Durand.

Elijah lived with Dauphinais, Stapf and the two-year-old daughter she had with Stapf in the basement of a house where Stapf's mother also lived.

That fall, Elijah's father, Timothy Lewis, became concerned that Elijah was not receiving proper medical care and contacted the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Elijah had developmental problems and a difficult behavioral pattern that worsened in New Hampshire, Lewis said in a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this year against Dauphinais, Stapf, Stapf's mother and Child Protective Services.

Faulkner said Lewis told child protective services that he couldn't take Elijah back because he was concerned about the safety of the other children living in his home. The pressure was put on Dauphinais, “who was unable to handle it,” Faulkner said.

A separate judge on Friday granted the state agency a partial dismissal of the case.

A lawyer for Stapf's mother denied the allegations in court. No attorneys are listed in the lawsuit for Stapf and Dauphinais.

Elijah weighed 32 pounds and had bruises on his face, eye and arm during a doctor's visit in November 2020, prosecutors said.

Dauphinais later told authorities that her son was sent to California to live with Dauphinais' sister, a custody agreement that the father had agreed to but that Dauphinais had reneged on, prosecutors said.

By October 2021, Dauphinais had given birth to a baby boy at home, prosecutors said. Stapf took the infant to a hospital with the intention of leaving him there.

The hospital found evidence of drugs on the baby and contacted Child Protective Services, who began an investigation.

The agency couldn't find any sign of Elijah.

Dauphinais said her son was with her sister and then with a man she described as her brother but turned out to be a friend.

Both the sister and the friend told investigators that Dauphinais contacted them and asked them to lie about Elijah's whereabouts.

Prosecutors believe Elijah died in September 2021 and the couple put his body in a container and took it to the Massachusetts park, where Stapf dug a hole and buried him, prosecutors said.

With Elijah still missing, Stapf and Dauphinais were arrested in New York. Days after her arrest, Elias' remains were found.

Prosecutors said when Elijah was found, he was 3 feet tall and weighed 19 pounds, while an average 5-year-old boy was about 3 feet tall and weighed closer to 40 pounds.

Addressing the court by telephone Friday, Lewis said he could never forgive Dauphinais for her actions and wished she was haunted by her son's death. Faulkner said she was.