UPDATE 3: Elyse J. Mamino
GUILTY BUT MENTALLY ILL: MAMINO ADMITS DELIVERING BABY INTO TOILET, GETS 6 YEARS
by Jennifer A. Bowen – Belleville News Democrat
A Belleville mother accused of delivering a baby into a toilet pleaded guilty because of mental illness to attempted first-degree murder Friday morning in Waterloo.
Associate Judge Richard Aguirre accepted Elyse J. Mamino’s plea of guilty but mentally ill and sentenced her to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. If the judge had not accepted the plea agreement between Monroe County State’s Attorney Kris Reitz and Mamino, she could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
Mamino, 23, was charged with attempted first-degree murder after her newborn daughter, Victoria, was found Nov. 15 in a toilet bowl at a family party. The information provided to the court by Reitz stated the Columbia Police officer responded to a 911 call from the Columbia home about a miscarriage into the toilet and that the baby had been born deceased.
However, when the officer arrived, Victoria was still alive. Victoria was hospitalized for two weeks after she was found and resuscitated.
Mamino later told police she didn’t know she was pregnant and then recanted that statement and confessed the baby was alive when it was born and was “gasping and kicking” after she placed her face down in the toilet.
When Aguirre asked Mamino whether she knew what the plea agreement entailed, she answered: “If I plead guilty I would be sentenced to six years based on the findings of the doctor. In looking over his findings, Dr. (Daniel) Cuneo said I do have a personality disorder and that could have played a role in my actions.”
Aguirre added that Cuneo, a psychologist, visited Mamino several times and also found her “substantially depressed” at the time Victoria was born and her mental illness could have also played a role in her actions. Cuneo recommended in his report to the court that she was guilty of attempted first-degree murder, but was also mentally ill.
When Aguirre asked Mamino whether she wanted to say anything after he accepted her guilty plea, she declined.
Mamino must serve 85 percent of her sentence before she becomes eligible for parole. She will get credit for time she has served since her arrest in a Monroe County Jail. After her release from prison, Mamino will have to spend three years on parole.
During the investigation, police searched Mamino’s duplex at 5 N. 42nd St. in Belleville and found the remains of another infant in a dresser drawer in the basement of the duplex. A juvenile court record stated Mamino gave birth to that baby in September 2007. The cause of the baby’s death is listed as unknown.
Mamino, a former teacher’s aide who worked with autistic children at Franklin School in Belleville, has not been charged in connection with the deceased baby.
When we first did this story, we caught hell from several of Elyse Mamino’s supporters insisting that she was innocent. Excuses ran the gamut, from she didn’t know she was pregnant to the police were lying to she never put the baby in the toilet. I must admit that right now I’m taking a great deal of pleasure in posting this update, especially since it proves that Elyse Mamino lied to all her friends, and confessed to police that she knew damn well she was pregnant and tried to drown little baby Victoria in that bathroom.
That said, I’m very unhappy with her sentence. Once again, a psychologist suggest that being depressed is an excuse for outrageous behavior, and a judge buys into that theory. Well, how many of us have been depressed at one time or another and never tried to harm our children? Since when does depression so debilitate a person that they lose their sense of right and wrong?
Mark my words, we’ll be hearing from Elyse J. Mamino again. She’s already killed successfully once, and almost pulled it off again. Next time, who knows how many children she’ll hurt or kill. From what I could tell, she showed no remorse in the courtroom, either for Victoria or for the remains of a newborn baby found in her dresser drawer, because she has no remorse. I believe she is a psychopath, and she will kill again.
22 Comments »
Obviously any woman who gives birth to a baby in a toilet and leaves it there is mentally ill, at least to some degree. It seems to me that cases like this leave the door wide open for other women who don’t want their babies to just dump them in a toilet and leave them to drown. People like this make me sick! If you don’t want to get pregnant, don’t spread your legs.
What’s even scarier is that when she gets out of prison she will still be of child bearing age. She makes a perfect poster child for forced sterilization! But, seriously, that judge is retarded. 6 years for knowingly killing a newborn infant?! That’s fucked.
Nicole… couldn’t have said it better.
Absolutely opens the door for other women who have unwanted babies to just kill them.
And the sentencing IS fucked.
“the baby was alive when it was born and was “gasping and kicking” after she placed her face down in the toilet.”
If she’s so depressed, she should kill herself.
If any of her friends or family read this, would you kindly pass a helpful suggestion along for me? Please tell her that if she cuts her wrists in a bathtub of warm water, she won’t feel a thing as she bleeds out. It’s even better if she takes a handful of sleeping pills first, waits for them to start working, and then cuts herself. The ease of this method should really appeal to a cowardly, selfish fuckhole like her.
Lmao vbecky. Hope someone passes that on.
Just tryin’ to do my part for the common good, Momwhocares. ;)
lol….and don’t forget it’s long ways across the wrist and not straight across :)
Six years is nothing. That judge sucks.
This woman definitely has mental problems, BUT SIX years??? There was another dead baby in the house, she’s done this before. Legal system FAIL
Ive known elyse for about 10 years..this all shocks me cuz none of us knew she was pregnant…i think more investigating should have been done..basicly it seems its ok there was a dead baby in her dresser..if u dont want a kid use a condom !
Josh… curious.
What was her personality like?
Josh, I believe that she might have hidden her pregnancy from you, but please don’t go on to think that SHE didn’t know she was pregnant. There’s only one condition that involves something alive kicking the shit out of you from the inside, and that’s PREGNANCY. She knew. Even a tapeworm doesn’t kick your guts out when you button your pants over it.
Is she really that big of a girl that she can hide a pregnancy?
If she really wanted to kil he baby, spend a few bucks on an abortion – same hing, but because someone gets paid, it’s legal!
At this point she needs to be spayed so that when she’s out at age 29 or 30 so no more innocent babies suffer.
According the the people I talked to last year Fred, Elyse is a very petite woman, about 5′ 2″ and 100 pounds. It’s possible she hid it from her friends – obviously she did , these people have no reason to lie about that – but there’s no way SHE didn’t know she was pregnant. And now we know that was a lie – she confessed to the cops that she knew.
What scares me the most about her Fred is her statement in court.
She feels nothing about what happened, nothing about the other baby. Nothing. I’m no expert on mental illness, but I know more than the average person, and alot of her behavior says “psychopath” to me. I think the judge missed a huge chance to put her away for a long, long time, before she hurt anyone else. I mean, even if he buys the mental illness thing, why not a long period in a locked psychiatric facility? She tried to drown her baby, plus she had a newborn’s remains hidden in her dresser drawer, which is powerful circumstantial evidence that she’s done it before and succeeded.
Is it just me dude? Am I the only one who sees what this bitch is really about? Am I being too much of a hard ass here?
Sick ass bitch! Six years is ridiculous. You know what though, she will get her’s. I just hope it happens before she has the chance to take another innocent life.
You always read through sites like this and always wonder wtf was wrong with these people. It’s a rare day when it’s someone you’ve known for roughly 9 years and first i found out about this was from a facebook comment. o.O
I could probably wear 6 years as being POSSIBLY appropriate if what happened at the party was an isolated incident.
Normal people don’t put newborn babies face down in the toilet. OF COURSE there is something mentally wrong with her … not wrong enough that she didn’t know she had to lie to the police and everyone else about it … that alone is proof that she knew what she was doing was wrong.
BUT — the presence of the other baby’s skeleton in the dresser? FFS … even if she didn’t kill it, even if it was some terrible accident … SHE PUT A DEAD BABY IN A DRAWER … I really think that they screwed the pooch sentencing her to only six years.
She must of felt something if she was hanging onto the drawer baby for however long- some sort of attachment maybe? on the other handCould be some sort of trophy for her, . I don’t think mentallity should be used as a scapegoat, in cases like this! You wanna help her? Send her to a max security mental institution for 30 years (for each baby). Oh and keep any and all penis’s away from this girl!!! if not, remove her ovaries, and/or uterus.
“the drawer baby”? ApriL, that shouldn’t have made me laugh like it did. BAHAHAHA! Oh mercy, I really need therapy. :P *hehe!*
No! Give her to me for 1 hour. After 2 min she will be begging me to kill her. By the time I get to skinning her head she will be a babbling, quivering lump of meat. THEN put her in jail.
remind never to get on your bad side mulch……….lol….
No need to worry. I only want to destroy sick demented people who hurt the innocent. I want them to feel the same pain they gave out for no reason other than thier own ignorance and greed.
You know, I could possibly buy the explanation that she was mentally ill, suffering from some kind of psychosis that caused her to do this to that poor child. But if she’s so mentally ill that she can’t be sent to prison, then she needs to go away to a mental institution for a LONG LONG time. Six years is not nearly long enough.