A Bakersfield mother who stabbed her 6-week-old daughter was sentenced in court. Twenty four-year-old Danielle Mailloux previously pleaded no contest to a felony count of inflicting injury on a child. She was sentenced to 9 months behind bars. Her attorney says she was suffering from postpartum depression at the time of the stabbing.
In court, Judge Charles Brehmer called Mailloux's actions horrible and inexcusable. Her attorney says she was on drugs and suffering from post-partum depression. The post-partum diagnosis is why the judge gave her 9 months with 5 years probation instead of an 8-year sentence.
With her eyes showing visible emotion, Mailloux listened to her grandmother explain how Mailloux stabbing her 6-week-old baby was out of character. Mailloux's grandmother, Karen Shatswell says, "Danielle is a sweet girl." The 24-year-old Bakersfield mother pleaded guilty to child endangerment with great bodily injury, after serving 8 months in jail. Part of the deal means she must turn her life around by staying clean from a meth addiction and attend parental counseling.
Her attorney and her therapist says Mailloux had severe post-partum depression when she stabbed her baby. Shatswell says,"I think that like I said in my comment, the post-partum depression had to have played a big part, because it was totally not a typical thing that Danielle would do." Mark Anthony Raimondo, Mailloux's Attorney says, "I interviewed thousands of clients in my years and she brought me to tears, it was a tragic event."
The tragic event was not the first time Mailloux's actions harmed one of her children. In 2009, authorities says she gave birth to a stillborn baby. The child died in the womb of a methamphetamine overdose. That baby's death was ruled a homicide. But under California law Mailloux could not be prosecuted for the type of death because it was abuse of her own body which in turn abused the boy of a fetus. The daughter she's accused of stabbing is now a toddler. Maillioux's family hopes she gets through rehab and is reunited with her family.
