Background: Grant County Detention Center in Silver City, New Mexico (Google Maps). Inset left: Madeline Daly (Grant County Sheriff’s Office). Inset right: Basil Stoner (GoFundMe).
A New Mexico woman is facing a potential life sentence after prosecutors said she kidnapped her 11-month-old son and fatally shot him to prevent her former boyfriend from spending time with the child.
Madeline Daly, 36, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of her infant son, Basil Stoner, the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in New Mexico announced on Wednesday.
The guilty plea came as part of an agreement, officials said. The judge overseeing the case did not immediately impose a punishment, instead setting a separate sentencing hearing after saying he needed more time to review the details.
Daly and Basil’s father had been in a relationship until July 2024, when Daly allegedly “went on the run and tried to keep the location of where she was and where the baby was going to be born a secret,” according to a GoFundMe that appears to have been created on the father’s behalf.
Before Basil was born on Jan. 8, 2025, Daly reportedly sent the father sporadic text messages telling him he would “never be a part of his child’s life.” She later moved to the small community of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, to complete her pregnancy, according to the fundraiser. The father eventually reconciled with her enough to be present when his son was born.
That fragile peace did not last. Daly allegedly would not discuss the baby’s name or allow the Stoner surname to be listed on the birth certificate. She also “refused” to let the father have a role in Basil’s life, prompting him to seek help through the courts, Cowboy State Daily reported.
After a custody trial in Washakie County, Wyoming, in fall 2025, Basil’s father was awarded shared custody. The arrangement was expected to quickly move toward a schedule in which he would have his son roughly half the time, the fundraiser said, adding that his first visits with Basil “went wonderfully.”
But again, Daly was accused of hiding Basil from his father. The man went to the courts, and he allegedly received a text message from Daly “calling him a deadbeat dad, telling him that she was already having his son start calling someone else daddy, and telling him, ‘awww you snitched.'”
When Daly failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing concerning visitation in October, the father was given temporary emergency custody, the newspaper reported. He would never see Basil again.
Daly reportedly fled and wound up in New Mexico. The DA’s office said a warrant was issued on kidnapping charges, but, according to the fundraiser, because authorities cited no evidence of “immediate, present danger to the child,” an Amber Alert was not posted.
Then came a tip from a witness. Someone reportedly said Daly was staying in an RV park near Silver City, New Mexico.
On Dec. 23, 2025, deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office responded, and the suspect allegedly hid with her son in an RV near the bunkhouse where she had been living.
As deputies tried to negotiate with the mother, she is said to have taken a 9 mm gun, pointed it at her son’s face, and fired. Law enforcement subsequently detained her.
Deputies tried to save Basil, but he was pronounced dead.
His obituary says he was “a happy and alert child” who “was happiest outdoors and loved watching animals” and “really liked blueberries.”
Daly was adamant about keeping her son away from the father and his family, according to court documents obtained by the Wyoming-based newspaper. She alleged that Basil would have been in danger if “she would have stepped out of that trailer” and that the father “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”
The DA’s office did not mention a scheduled date for the defendant’s sentencing.
The post Woman shoots 11-month-old son in the face with 9 mm so that his father would ‘never be a part of his child’s life’ first appeared on Law & Crime.
