Mother's Boyfriend Pleads Guilty In Death Of 5-Year-Old Elijah Lewis Found In Park

9/29/2022

Mother’s Boyfriend Pleads Guilty In Death Of 5-Year-Old Elijah Lewis Found In Park.

The boyfriend of a woman whose 5-year-old son was found dead in an Abington last year state park has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the boy’s death and been sentenced to decades in prison.

On Thursday, Joseph Stapf pleaded guilty to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence and tampering with a witness. He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and two to five years on the other charges.

In court, prosecutors outlined disturbing details of systemic abuse Elijah Lewis allegedly suffered while living with his mother, Danielle Dauphinais, and Stapf, along with the couple’s 2-year-old child. A series of texts between Dauphinais and Stapf were read in court in which they talked about abusing Elijah and not feeding him.

At one point, Stapf texted Dauphinais that they needed to feed Elijah and let him sleep so he would look better so they could go out and do things, but Dauphinais responded that she didn’t want to do that, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that in one incident, Stapf picked Elijah up by his arms, yelled at him and threw him on a bed. Elijah struck his head and was injured, prosecutors said, adding that as the abuse went on, Stapf at one point began urging Dauphinais to stop what he referred to as “torture,” but she refused.

In court, prosecutors said Stapf returned home to find Elijah in a tub in the home’s basement, naked and bleeding from an injury to his head, with broken tiles around him. Stapf put a bandage on the boy and took him to bed but didn’t seek medical help, prosecutors said.

Elijah died at some point in the following days, between Sept. 21 and Sept. 24, 2021.

As the details of the abuse were read in court, Stapf kept his head bowed, looking at times over at the prosecutor.

Prosecutors said Dauphinais allegedly told Stapf to get rid of Elijah’s body.

The two allegedly put Elijah in the back of a pickup truck and drove to Massachusetts, where they buried the boy in a shallow hole in a state park in Abington.

Prosecutors said the two then abandoned the truck at the Mohegan Sun casino. They were later arrested in New York.