A Wyoming woman who shot and killed her 11-month-old boy during a brief standoff with law enforcement after allegedly kidnapping him and fleeing to New Mexico has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Madeline Daly, 36, pleaded guilty this week in the Sixth Judicial District Court in Silver City, New Mexico, which eliminates the need for a trial that had been scheduled to begin Jan. 11, 2027, according to the local district attorney’s office.
Daly’s plea agreement calls for her to receive the maximum sentence in New Mexico for first-degree murder, which is 30 years in prison, said Roxanne Garcia-McElmell, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office.
The 30-year max “is considered life here in New Mexico,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday, adding that the state doesn’t have the death penalty.
After serving 30 years for killing her 11-month-old infant Basil, Daly will be turned over to Wyoming authorities to face prosecution on an outstanding kidnapping charge, Garcia-McElmell said.
“They had the kidnapping charges filed in Wyoming, too,” she said, adding that with a potential conviction on that allegation, “she will end up spending the rest of her life in prison.”
In exchange for the guilty first-degree murder plea — entered Monday — and agreement to accept a maximum sentence, a charge of child abuse was dropped.
Although all kinds of crimes run through the court in southwest New Mexico, Daly’s case stands out as “horrific,” Garcia-McElmell said.
She added that the officers and deputies who were at the RV that day “are still having trouble dealing with it.”
‘She Would Do It Again’
When Daly was discovered in a small town near Silver City on Dec. 23, 2025, local law enforcement converged on the location of an RV she was living in with her son.
As Grant County Sheriff’s Office deputies moved in around the RV, Daly, who lived at an RV park in Ten Sleep before leaving the state, realized they were closing in on her, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in her case.
She allegedly shot her son, then tried to turn the gun on herself, but by then officers were able to subdue her, according to the affidavit written by Detective Lt. Jason Jordan.
Daly later told investigators she was “too slow” to also kill herself, and that she felt she had to kill the boy to keep him away from his father.
She also reportedly told investigators afterward that she didn’t know why she shot and killed the boy, but that in her mind, she couldn’t let the father, Jake Stoner, or his family have him.
“Even if the rest of life is worthless, she would do it again just to make sure that the (family) didn’t touch him,” the affidavit says.
Daly told investigators that after officers stormed into the RV when she shot the boy, she “wasn’t fast enough killing herself after is all she can say about that,” the affidavit says.
Daly was wanted on a warrant out of Washakie County, Wyoming, after the boy’s father reported the infant missing Nov. 19.
Stoner, from Kilgore, Nebraska, shared custody of the boy with Daly and said she resisted him visiting their son. He last saw Basil on Sept. 28, 2025.
‘Most God-Awful Thing’
For his part, Stoner hasn’t publicly addressed Daly’s plea agreement, but told Cowboy State Daily earlier this month he had hoped she would be prosecuted at the federal level because that would include the potential for a death sentence.
He declined to discuss the legal and court process much ahead of the trial, but Stoner did say he would have preferred if she were facing a federal prosecution instead of state.
With a federal court, “she would face the death penalty,” Stoner said.
“There’s a special kind of evil at work here,” he said, adding that he’s still “pretty much” shellshocked.
“This is the most God-awful thing I’ve ever experienced,” he said.
Was Keeping Boy ‘Safe’
Daly had disappeared until she applied for a job near Silver City, New Mexico, the affidavit says.
The Wyoming warrant for her arrest popped up during a background check, the affidavit says.
For her part, Daly told agents after her arrest that she was keeping Basil “safe,” and that she knew she was breaking the law, but felt it was worth it for the sake of her child.
She said that’s why she ran into a nearby RV with Basil when she realized the law was closing in on her, the affidavit says.
She also made unsubstantiated claims that Basil “would have been in danger and molested if she would have stepped out of that trailer” and that his father “never wanted anything to do with Basil, financially, physically, emotionally ever.”
When questioned about why she kidnapped her own son, Daly replied that “she was not going to allow her (then) 8-month-old baby go back and forth from Nebraska to Wyoming twice a month,” the affidavit says.
Daly said she wound up in New Mexico because she had worked in that area 10 years ago. She began working for some people there who “ended up ratting her out because they knew she was running from something,” Jordan wrote.
Daly apparently had been trying to blend into an unincorporated area near Silver City, Jordan wrote in his affidavit.
She was living in a rented bunkhouse, and an officer who had a contact living near the bunkhouse was alerted and began “keeping an eye out for her return home,” Jordan wrote.
Coincidentally, another deputy saw Daly and her son earlier that day at a local restaurant, but at the time didn’t know she was wanted by the law.
“Madeline was last seen this morning by Cpl. Deputy (William) Mize at the Three Questions Café in Mimbres, but he was not aware of the kidnapping at the time,” the affidavit says.
The document goes on to recount that the deputy observed that “she was a bit evasive as she sat down with her son to have breakfast this morning.”
A Gunshot Rang Out
After getting the call from Washakie County, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office developed a plan to retrieve Basil, the affidavit says.
That included sending out five deputies to the bunkhouse. They had been tipped off that Daly had returned there.
“On arrival, Cpl. Deputy Mize saw a female subject running with a small child towards a motorized RV,” the affidavit says. “When deputies arrived to the motorized RV, they were confronted by a female subject later identified as (the owner of the RV).”
Daly later told investigators why she ran with Basil into the RV.
“I saw the sheriffs and I knew my time was up,” she said, according to the affidavit.
“When asked what went through her mind when she saw law enforcement walking up, she replied, ‘Jake can’t get Basil,’” the affidavit said.
Daly reportedly told investigators she assumed they had a felony warrant for kidnapping because she didn’t follow a judge’s custody order.
“So, she said, ‘F*** it, it’s worth a shot,’” the affidavit says, adding that she considered her actions “worth it” if it meant keeping Basil away from his father and his family.
Deputies wanted to go into the RV and get the boy, but the owner “would not give deputies permission to enter her residence without a search warrant,” the affidavit says.
While authorities were telling Daly that she was surrounded and calling her out of the house, other agents were preparing to get a search warrant “just in case Madeline did not comply and come outside,” the affidavit says.
It was then at least one gunshot was heard from inside the RV.
One deputy then reported that the 11-month-old had been “shot in the chest by his mother, Madeline Daly,” the affidavit says, adding that she was in custody.
It’s not clear from the affidavit how many times the infant was shot.
The document references a gunshot to the chest, but then also reports that “medical staff worked on the child, but they were unable to save his life due to the gunshot wound to the face.”
It’s not clear from Daly’s public-facing court file if a mental evaluation has been asked for or ordered leading up to the trial. There are four documents that have been sealed from public view.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
