Madeline Daly must serve at least 30 years before parole can be considered for the first-degree murder of her son, Basil.

SILVER CITY, N.M. — A Wyoming mother who admitted fatally shooting her 11-month-old son as authorities closed in on her during a custody dispute has been sentenced to life in a New Mexico prison, bringing the state murder case to a close nearly nine months after the child’s death.

District Judge Tom Stewart sentenced Madeline Veronique Daly on Sept. 28 after she pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder in the death of Basil, her infant son. Prosecutors said the sentence is the maximum punishment for the offense under the circumstances of the plea. Daly will have to serve at least 30 years before a parole board can consider releasing her. Parole after that period is not automatic. The sentencing followed a case that began with a custody fight in Wyoming, moved across state lines and ended at a rural property in Grant County, New Mexico, on Dec. 23, 2025.

The sentencing hearing put the focus on the consequences of a case that had previously been defined by the search for Daly and her son. Daly spoke before the sentence was imposed and described Basil as an energetic child who loved being outside. She also acknowledged that her actions could not be excused. Stewart said the crime could not be separated from the choices Daly made before deputies reached the RV where she and the child were found. The judge said he had considered whether to remove the possibility of parole altogether but allowed Daly to remain eligible for consideration after the required 30 years.

The path to the New Mexico prosecution began months earlier in Wyoming. Daly and Basil’s father, Jake Stoner, had been involved in a contested custody case. According to court reporting and law enforcement accounts, Daly did not appear for an Oct. 21, 2025, custody hearing. A Wyoming judge then granted Stoner temporary emergency custody. Authorities later said Daly did not surrender the child as required. Basil was reported missing in November, and a felony warrant was issued in Wyoming in connection with interference with custody. Law enforcement began trying to locate Daly and the baby.

The search did not immediately result in an Amber Alert. Reporting citing the Washakie County Sheriff’s Office said investigators did not then have information establishing that Basil faced an immediate threat of serious harm, even though his whereabouts were unknown and a custody order required his return. Authorities continued following leads. Daly eventually traveled to southwestern New Mexico with the child. Court records and later reports placed her in the Mimbres area of Grant County, where she sought work and stayed on rural property along Highway 15.

The break in the search came through an employment background check. Daly approached a prospective employer in New Mexico, and the check revealed the outstanding Wyoming warrant, according to court records described by local news organizations. Authorities were notified, leading Grant County sheriff’s deputies to the property where Daly had been staying. Prosecutors said deputies saw Daly move toward a motorized RV with Basil as officers arrived. The deputies surrounded the vehicle and began working to obtain legal authority to enter it while attempting to get Daly to surrender.

While deputies were outside the RV, they heard a gunshot, according to the Sixth Judicial District Attorney’s Office and sheriff’s accounts. Officers entered and found that Basil had been shot with a 9 mm handgun. Deputies took Daly into custody after a brief struggle and carried the wounded child toward an ambulance while attempting to save him. Basil did not survive. Later court reporting said Daly had also been holding the firearm near herself when a detective intervened. Authorities charged her with first-degree murder and intentional child abuse resulting in death.

At a January detention hearing, Stewart ordered Daly held without bond. Prosecutors cited both the killing and the circumstances surrounding her flight from Wyoming. The judge expressed concern about safety and about the hostility surrounding the case. Daly initially faced the possibility of a trial on both New Mexico charges. The first-degree murder count alleged a willful and deliberate killing. The child abuse count was separately based on the death of Basil. Her case remained pending through a series of hearings during the first half of 2026.

That changed on Aug. 24, when Daly pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Sixth Judicial District Court. Judge Stewart accepted the agreement. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped the separate intentional child abuse charge. The plea eliminated the need for a murder trial and left sentencing as the principal unresolved issue. Prosecutors said at the time that Daly faced life imprisonment. Stewart scheduled a separate sentencing hearing because he wanted additional time to review the record before formally imposing punishment.

The guilty plea also changed the legal posture of many facts that had first appeared as allegations in police reports. Daly no longer contested responsibility for the murder charge. Accounts based on investigative records said she had told officers that she believed Basil would be harmed if he were returned to his father or the father’s family. Those assertions were Daly’s stated beliefs, not findings that Stoner or his relatives had abused the child. The available court reporting does not establish that such abuse occurred. The custody court had instead ordered the child turned over to his father before Daly left Wyoming with him.

At sentencing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Joseph Silva described the case as exceptionally traumatic for Basil’s relatives and for the officers and emergency personnel who responded. A written statement from Stoner was presented to the judge but was not read aloud in court, according to local reporting. Daly apologized to Stoner during her own remarks and spoke about her memories of Basil. Stewart ultimately imposed the life sentence required for the first-degree murder conviction while declining to permanently bar the possibility of parole.

The punishment means Daly cannot seek parole consideration until she has spent three decades in custody. The possibility of a future hearing does not mean she will be released at that time. A parole board would decide any eventual release under the rules then in effect and based on the record before it. New Mexico prosecutors characterized the sentence as the maximum penalty applicable to the conviction. Daly, who was 36 when the plea was announced, would be in her 60s before reaching the earliest point at which parole could be considered.

The New Mexico sentence does not necessarily resolve every legal matter arising from Daly’s departure from Wyoming. Authorities there had issued a warrant tied to the custody case, and reporting after the guilty plea said Wyoming could still pursue its own prosecution. The precise status and timetable of any separate Wyoming proceeding had not been publicly established in the materials reviewed. Any additional charge would remain a separate matter from the New Mexico murder conviction and would carry its own legal process.

For Basil’s family, the Sept. 28 sentencing marked the clearest measure of legal finality yet in a case that began as a dispute over where the child would live. He was 11 months old when he died, just two days before Christmas 2025. Daly is now serving a life sentence in the New Mexico corrections system, with parole consideration unavailable for at least 30 years. No subsequent change to that sentence had been announced as of Oct. 17.

Author note: Last updated October 17, 2026.