A Florida mother has been sentenced to a decade in prison for the manslaughter of her infant son, a case that began with a frantic 911 call and ended with a jury rejecting a murder charge but finding her criminally responsible for the child’s death. The sentencing of Lily Shite, formerly Lindsay Ship, closes a tragic chapter that saw the death of 14-week-old Dominic in November 2021 and a lengthy investigation that pivoted on unexplained traumatic injuries.
The case unfolded in Sarasota on the night of November 8, 2021, when a panicked Shite ran from her home carrying her unresponsive newborn. She rushed to a neighbor, a nurse, for help before paramedics were called. Emergency medical technicians performed life-saving measures on baby Dominic, who was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support.
Doctors found signs of severe head trauma and no brain activity. The infant was removed from life support days later and pronounced dead. At the time of the incident, the child’s father was away from the home, leaving Shite as the sole caregiver for Dominic and his two-year-old brother.
During a voluntary police interview on November 19, Shite, a nurse herself, recounted the evening in detail. She described a normal dinner, her husband Pete leaving for band practice, and feeding Dominic before placing him in a bassinet. She claimed she later discovered him not breathing, with blue lips and a brown liquid coming from his mouth.
“I scooped him out… I immediately noticed he’s unresponsive,” Shite told detectives. “I panicked.” She stated she could not find her phone and ran to a neighbor’s house, where CPR was initiated in a garage. “He was full of, um, I don’t know, it was brown. He was very junky,” she said of the infant.
Detectives, however, were already aware of a prior incident. Shite explained that when Dominic was three weeks old, he suffered a fractured leg in an accident involving his toddler brother. She described the toddler losing his balance and pulling her hand, causing the baby to fall. The injury was treated at a hospital.
As the investigation progressed, the narrative of an accidental death began to unravel. An autopsy revealed Dominic had not only suffered the fresh head trauma that killed him but also evidence of a previous skull fracture and brain bleed. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death was trauma due to blunt impacts to the head and classified the manner of death as a homicide.
Confronted with these findings in a second interview on December 2, Shite maintained she had no explanation for the injuries. Detectives emphasized the critical time gap between when her husband left the home and when paramedics were called—a period they stated was the only window for the fatal injuries to have occurred.
“We know that that’s the gap that we’re dealing with,” a detective told her. “This happened while the baby was in your care.” They also challenged her account of the brown fluid, presenting photo evidence that it was found on a pillowcase in the master bed, not the bassinet sheet as she recalled.
Shite, who admitted to struggling with postpartum depression and grief over the recent loss of her sister, was offered empathy but pressed for answers. “If it was a matter of just losing it for one second, then that’s what happened,” a detective suggested. “But that’s something that we don’t know unless you tell us.”
Based on the medical evidence, Lily Shite was arrested on March 15, 2022, and charged with second-degree murder. She remained in jail awaiting trial for nearly four years. By the time her case went before a Sarasota jury in August 2025, the charge had been reduced to manslaughter.
The state argued Shite caused her son’s fatal injuries during a moment of stress while solely caring for two young children. The defense highlighted her cooperation, lack of malicious intent, and the immense personal pressures she faced. After deliberation, the jury found her guilty of the lesser charge.
Her attorney, Jason Miller, told media the verdict reflected the state’s failure to prove “depraved intent.” He stated the case appeared to describe “a negligent act that was still criminal at the same time.”
The emotional sentencing hearing in late 2025 laid bare the family’s rift. Dominic’s paternal grandparents advocated for the maximum sentence, describing a “permanent shadow” over the family. Shite’s own parents pleaded for leniency, with her father stating he could not imagine her intentionally harming his grandson.
The presiding judge ultimately sentenced Lily Shite to ten years in a state correctional facility, followed by four years of probation. With credit for the nearly four years she served in jail awaiting trial and sentencing, she is expected to serve approximately five more years in prison.
The case leaves a community grappling with the complex intersection of postpartum struggle, tragic loss, and criminal culpability, a stark reminder of the devastating consequences that can unfold behind closed doors in a matter of hours. The final gavel brings a measure of legal resolution, but for the family involved, the search for understanding and healing continues.