Basil Stoner was 11 months old when his mother killed him inside an RV in New Mexico. His father had already gone to court to get him back.

Now Madeline Veronique Daly, 36, has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Investigators said she wanted to keep the baby away from his father and his family, even if it meant ending his life.

According to the arrest affidavit, Daly described what she had done as “worth it.”

The account of her motive is difficult to read:

The New York Post reported that a background check for a job near Silver City exposed an outstanding Wyoming warrant for Daly. That helped authorities find her after she took Basil across state lines.

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A court had granted emergency custody to the boy’s father, Jake Stoner. He told investigators that he last saw his son on September 28, 2025, nearly three months before deputies found Daly in New Mexico.

The affidavit described Daly’s determination to prevent Stoner and his relatives from seeing the child. She also made allegations against the father that the Post identified as unsubstantiated, not established facts about him.

Stoner had obtained a court order, and the deputies had located his son. Basil still never made it home alive.

In its announcement, the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said Daly entered her guilty plea on August 24. Judge Tom Stewart accepted the plea agreement but requested more time to review the case before a separate sentencing hearing.

Daly faces a life sentence; the announcement did not say that sentence had already been imposed. Prosecutors said Grant County deputies responded to a rural property along Highway 15 after receiving a tip about Daly and the Wyoming kidnapping warrant.

They located her and Basil inside a motorized RV. While deputies surrounded the vehicle and worked to obtain a search warrant, they heard a gunshot.

They rushed inside and found that Daly had shot her son with a 9mm handgun. Deputies detained her after a brief struggle and rushed Basil to a waiting ambulance, but he died on December 23, 2025.

The custody dispute and the search for Basil stretched across state lines before deputies reached that RV:

Cowboy State Daily, which reviewed the affidavit and spoke with the district attorney’s office, reported that the plea eliminates the need for the murder trial previously set for January 11, 2027. A child-abuse charge was dropped under the agreement, according to the office’s spokesperson.

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The newspaper also reported that a separate Wyoming kidnapping charge remains outstanding. That is a separate proceeding from the New Mexico murder case, where formal sentencing is still pending.

Earlier this month, Stoner told the newspaper he had hoped for a federal prosecution that could carry the death penalty. He described the loss of his son as the worst experience of his life.

The plea changes the court process. It cannot give him back the time he was supposed to have with Basil.

Basil’s family remembered him in an obituary published by Sandoz Chapel of the Pines. He was born January 8, 2025, in Worland, Wyoming, and his father was thrilled to have the son he had wanted.

The little boy was alert and curious, and he loved being outside, watching animals and eating blueberries. Those are the details his family chose to preserve about a life that lasted less than a year.

His funeral was held at Valentine Methodist Church in Valentine, Nebraska, on February 7, 2026, with burial at the Stoner Ranch Cemetery. He left behind his father, grandparents, an aunt, cousins, great-grandparents, and many other family members and friends.

Basil never reached his first birthday.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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