Mother Of 3 Pleads In Unsupervised Baby's Death In Box Spring

SPRING VALLEY, NY — A Rockland resident whose baby suffocated in a box spring when she left her three children unsupervised could serve up to four years in prison.

Marie Dorleus, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of criminally negligent homicide before the Honorable Kevin F. Russo in Rockland County Court. She had originally been charged with manslaughter.

Dorleus admitted that on June 19, she left her three children — the oldest was 6 — unsupervised for several hours in their family home in Spring Valley. While the children were alone, her one-year-old son became stuck in a box spring mattress leaning against a wall in her bedroom, prosecutors said. The child suffocated and was pronounced dead at Nyack Hospital later that evening.

She knew the box spring was there and that her children had access to the room, prosecutors said.

The matter is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 15. Prosecutors will ask the judge to sentence Dorleus to the maximum period permitted by law, which is one and one-third years to four years in state prison.

“Any loss of life is tragic but losing a child strikes the very heart and soul of our community. What makes this case even more egregious is the fact that this heartbreaking loss of life was due to the child’s own mother’s negligence," said DA Tom Walsh. "The Rockland County District Attorney’s Offices Special Victim’s Unit is committed to ensuring justice for the most vulnerable of victims here in Rockland County."

The matter was investigated by the Village of Spring Valley Police Department, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Special Victims Unit of the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Executive Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Devlin.