A New Mexico court accepted a guilty plea from a Wyoming woman who fatally shot her infant son last December, telling investigators she did it to ensure that the boy’s father would never gain custody of him.
According to court records examined by Complex and a statement from prosecutors, Madeline Veronique Daly, 36, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Aug. 24 in the Sixth Judicial District Court in Silver City. Under the plea agreement, Daly faces life in prison and would become eligible for parole after serving 30 years. A charge of child abuse was dismissed as part of the agreement. The judge will impose her sentence at a later hearing. Her trial had been scheduled to begin Jan. 11, 2027.
Daly fatally shot 11-month-old Basil Stoner on Dec. 23, 2025, inside an RV at a park near Silver City. She had taken the boy from Wyoming to New Mexico in violation of a court order granting emergency custody to his father, Jake Stoner of Kilgore, Nebraska.
Officers located Daly after she applied for work near Silver City, and a Washakie County, Wyoming, kidnapping warrant surfaced during a background check. A deputy spotted her that same morning having breakfast with Basil at a local cafe. When police closed in, she ran with the boy toward a motorized RV. The owner refused to allow entry without a search warrant, so officers surrounded the vehicle. While waiting on the warrant, they heard at least one gunshot and rushed inside.
According to an arrest affidavit viewed by Cowboy State Daily, Daly said she saw law enforcement approaching and the thought that went through her mind was: "Jake can't get Basil." She considered the killing "worth it" if it meant the boy's father and his relatives would never see him.
After shooting Basil, she allegedly attempted to turn the 9mm handgun on herself before officers subdued her. Medical personnel were unable to save the infant.
Daly also told police she had kidnapped Basil because "she was not going to allow her (then) 8-month-old baby go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month." She made unsubstantiated claims about the boy's safety, which the supplied source characterized as allegations that his father "never wanted anything to do with" the child.
Jake Stoner said he had hoped the case would be prosecuted at the federal level, which could have opened the door to a more severe sentence. "There's a special kind of evil at work here," he told Cowboy State Daily. "This is the most God-awful thing I've ever experienced."
