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Mom Who Tossed Baby Daughter in Hudson Takes Insanity Plea Deal

By DNAinfo Staff on December 9, 2011 5:52pm

Devi Silvia was tearful at times at her bail hearing last year.
Devi Silvia was tearful at times at her bail hearing last year.
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DNAinfo/Josh Williams

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A bipolar woman who said she heard the voice of God tell her to toss her infant daughter into the freezing Hudson River was offered an insanity plea deal and may get involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility.

Experts who examined 34-year-old Devi Silvia after she was arrested for throwing the small child into the river while also trying to drown herself determined she was bipolar and suffering from a manic episode at the time.

Hallucinations and bouts of paranoia haunted her in the weeks before the during the May 11, 2010 incident, prosecutors said Friday.

"She heard a voice that told her to jump into the river and she obeyed this command," Assistant District Attorney Kevin Wilson said in a detailed statement about Silvia's mental state read to the court during the proceeding.

Witnesses saw Silvia in the water clutching the child near the shoreline near West 70th Street and yelling to her as they sought emergency assistance.

The baby was nearly drowned but was miraculously revived by first responders and sustained no permanent damage from the incident, prosecutors said.

"When the child was pulled from close to the center of the river she had no pulse and she was not breathing," Wilson said. "The rescue workers aggressively worked and were able to resuscitate her and she was taken to the hospital."

Silvia, who could not swim, was also pulled from the water and told police "that her baby was dead and that she wanted to die." 

Doctors later found that she had no recollection of these events.

"It is clear the defendant was acting as a result of a psychotic break with reality due to her bipolar disorder," Wilson said.

Prosecutors consented to her entering a not guilty plea by reason of insanity, which they said they believe would have been proven at trial.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro accepted their offer and Silvia's plea and said it is now up to the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to evaluate her and to recommend proper treatment, which could include time spent involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility.

Silvia, dressed in traditional garb of her native India, quietly answered questions raised by the judge Friday afternoon. She embraced her husband and other supporters as she left the courtroom.

Silvia's attorney, Daniel McGillycuddy, thanked prosecutors for recognizing her illness and proceeding accordingly.

"In short, what happened to this young lady could have happened to anyone — all of her comments all of her conduct," McGillycuddy said.

She had been charged with attempted murder, assault, child endangerment and other related charges.

Silvia's children, the infant and a 6-year-old daughter, were sent back to India to live with family when she was released from the Elmhurst Hospital psychiatric ward on bail last year.

The family had been living in New York in a Riverside Boulevard Trump building at the time of the incident because of her husband's work assignment.