Swissvale mom who stabbed ‘devil’s baby’ found not guilty due to insanity

A judge ruled Thursday that a Swissvale woman was not guilty by reason of insanity when she stabbed her eight-day-old son in 2017 and blamed the attack on voices telling her the infant was the “devil’s baby.”

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski ordered Tanishia Fielder to involuntary mental health treatment for up to ayear with reviews of her status at least every 90 days.

Ms. Fielder, 34, will be held in the Allegheny County Jail until she can be admitted to Torrance State Hospital in West more land County.

While the judge’s order caps Ms. Fielder’s stay at Torrance at a year, the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said that at that point, the judge can either release her or order a longer stay.

Mike Manko, the DA’s spokesman, said prosecutors have not received such a verdict more than a “handful of times”over the past 20 years.

The prosecution and defense had agreed in July that Ms. Fielder should plead not guilty by reason of insanity in order to get proper mental health treatment for her schizophrenia. But defense attorney Andrew Capone had asked that his client be released to a community treatmentteam.

Mr. Manko said that his office’s expert “was in agreement that at the time of the crime, the defendant was unaware of her actions leading to her arrest.”

Psychiatrists for both sides agreed that Ms. Fielder did not know what she was doing was wrong because, at the time, she was experiencing delusions and hallucinations.

Ms. Fielder was charged with two counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and related offenses stemming from the incident Sept. 8,2017, at her home.

According to a report by the prosecution’s expert, Ms. Fielder began having auditory hallucinations the day she brought her son home fromthe hospital.

“I was at the hospital. I brought him home. Everything was fine,” she told the expert. “When I went in there to get something, it was a strong feeling, through my eyes. I looked in the bassinet. The voices came out and said, kill him. I don’t know how to kill no one. They said take the baby out of the house. I took the baby outside the fire escape. They said don’t take the baby in the house. The voice said the house will blow up. I kept taking the baby outside. Voices told me to kill the baby, and if Darwin gets in the way, kill him, too. Voices said that’s the devil’s baby.”

Ms. Fielder’s son had knife woundsnear his right eye.