Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Wednesday, July 17 that a Bronx woman has been charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of her eleven-month-old son and three-year-old son inside a family shelter in the Mt. Hope section of The Bronx in November 2022.

 

In the context of the announcement, Clark said, “Children should be safe and feel protected by their mothers. Instead, these little boys were allegedly stabbed multiple times then submerged in a bathtub by their mother. The defendant’s alleged actions against her children are chilling. I send my heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of these innocent young boys, Octavius and Daishawn, who were taken too soon.”

Clark said the defendant, Dimone Fleming, 23, who, as reported at the time, was living in a family shelter at 246 Echo Place, was arraigned on Wednesday, July 17, on first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, and two counts of first-degree manslaughter before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Brenda Rivera. The 23-year-old mother was remanded in custody and is due back in court in August.

 

According to the investigation, and as reported at the time, on Nov. 26, 2022, inside the apartment in 246 Echo Place, Fleming allegedly murdered her two sons, Octavius Canada, 11 months, and Daishawn Fleming, 3. According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the children had extensive stab and slicing wounds to their necks and surrounding areas. Both children had four fatal wounds. They were found lifeless in a bathtub full of water covered by a dark sheet. Fleming was allegedly the sole caretaker of the children inside their home at the time of their death.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Wichman, supervisor in the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, under the supervision of Johanna Hernandez and Alexandra Militano, deputy chiefs of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, Mimi Mairs, chief of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Adrienne Giunta, deputy chief of the Special Victims Division and Joseph Muroff, chief of the Special Victims Division.

 

Clark thanked Senior Trial Counsel Astrid Borgstedt and Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Farrar, both of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, for their work on the case. She also thanked Trial Preparation Assistant Elaina Clarke.

In addition, Clark thanked NYPD Detective Diego Marin of the 46th Precinct, Det. Patrick Flatley of Bronx Homicide and Det. Julie Casale of the Crime Scene Unit for their work on the investigation. She also thanked FDNY Emergency Medical Services and the responding officers from the 46^th Precinct for what she said was their extensive efforts to render aid to the children at the scene.

 

The defendant is presumed innocent unless and untl convicted in a court of law.