SILVER CITY, N.M. — A Wyoming mother who kidnapped her infant son during a bitter custody fight and then shot the baby in the face as deputies closed in has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, telling investigators the killing was “worth it” if the boy’s father never saw him again.
Madeline Veronique Daly, 36, entered the plea Aug. 24 in Sixth Judicial District Court in Silver City. Judge Tom F. Stewart accepted the agreement and set a later sentencing hearing, saying he wanted more time to review the case. Under New Mexico law, the maximum penalty for first-degree murder is a life sentence, 30 years in prison. The state has no death penalty.
A child-abuse count was dismissed as part of the deal. After she finishes the New Mexico sentence, prosecutors say Daly is expected to be turned over to Wyoming authorities on a still-pending kidnapping charge. A conviction there, the district attorney’s office said, could keep her locked up for the rest of her life.
The victim was 11-month-old Basil Stoner, born Jan. 8, 2025. His father is Jake Stoner of Kilgore, Nebraska.
Authorities say Daly took the child from Wyoming in violation of a court order that granted emergency custody to Stoner. She had missed a visitation-related hearing, and a Washakie County kidnapping warrant followed. Stoner last saw his son in September 2025 and reported the boy missing in mid-November. No Amber Alert was issued because officials said they lacked evidence of an “immediate, present danger.”
Daly was tracked to rural Grant County on Dec. 23, 2025, after she applied for work near Silver City and a background check flagged the Wyoming warrant. Deputies found her at a property along Highway 15, then watched her run into a motorized RV with the child. They surrounded the vehicle and waited on a search warrant. Then they heard a gunshot.
Officers rushed in and found Daly had fatally shot Basil with a 9mm handgun. Charging papers said the infant was shot in the face — one filing specified the left eye. Deputies struggled with Daly, took her into custody, and tried to save the baby. He died at the scene. She later admitted she had also tried to turn the gun on herself but “was not fast enough.”
After her arrest, Daly told detectives she believed she was keeping her son “safe.” Killing him, she said, was “worth it” if it meant Stoner and his relatives would never have the child. Asked what went through her mind when she saw law enforcement approaching, she answered: “Jake can’t get Basil.”
She also claimed she would not let the baby “go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month,” and alleged — without public evidence cited by prosecutors — that Basil “would have been in danger and molested” if she surrendered. She said Stoner “never wanted anything to do with [him], financially, physically, emotionally, ever.” Stoner has said the opposite: that he spent months fighting in court just to be a father.
Court and family accounts describe a relationship that collapsed while Daly was pregnant. Stoner’s attorney said Daly hid her location before the birth, then sent texts saying he would never be part of the child’s life. The couple briefly reconciled and Stoner was present when Basil was born in Ten Sleep, Wyoming. Daly later refused to put Stoner’s name on the birth certificate and, according to texts cited by the father’s side, called him a “deadbeat,” said the baby was already calling someone else “daddy,” and wrote, “awww you snitched,” after he went to court.
Stoner has said he will never comprehend what happened to “my beautiful little boy.” A GoFundMe organized after the killing sought help with funeral costs and a campaign to loosen Amber Alert standards, arguing a broader alert might have found Basil sooner. There were also concerns Daly, described as a dual U.S.-French citizen, might try to take the child out of the country.
Daly’s trial had been set for Jan. 11, 2027. The guilty plea ends that proceeding. Sentencing remains pending before Judge Stewart. New Mexico officials have been blunt about the legal ceiling: 30 years is “considered life here,” a district attorney spokesperson told Cowboy State Daily. That fact, a mother who executed her baby to deny the father custody, then faces three decades rather than life without parole or capital punishment, is what has driven the case across social media this week.
District Attorney Norman R. Wheeler’s office announced the plea. Grant County deputies, the Hurley Police Department, U.S. Forest Service officers and emergency crews responded the day Basil was killed.
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