Mother gets maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for shooting infant son in the face amid custody battle
10/01/2026 11:08 am PDT
GRANT COUNTY, N.M. (TCN) -- A Wyoming mother who fled to New Mexico with her son and shot him in the face after a judge granted his father custody has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
In November 2025, Basil Stoner’s father reported him missing. The child’s mother, 35-year-old Madeline Daly, had taken him after she missed a court hearing, per the Cowboy State Daily. The judge had given Stoner’s father custody. Daly took the child to New Mexico, where she sought work from a former employer. When a potential employer ran a background check, he noted she had an outstanding warrant for kidnapping, and he tipped off the authorities, according to the Silver City Daily Press.
On Dec. 23, 2025, they tracked her to the RV park where she was staying, and she fled into an RV with Stoner when she saw them arrive. They attempted to negotiate with Daly to get her to come out, but a gunshot was heard, and they forced entry and saw that Daly had shot her son in the face. Daly was charged with an open count of first-degree murder.
On Aug. 24, Daly pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
KRQE reports Daly was sentenced on Sept. 28 to 30 years in prison, New Mexico’s maximum penalty for first-degree murder.
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