Mother escapes toddler death charges with mental illness diagnosis

“At the time of the alleged offenses the Defendant did not have the mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong and that she acted because of delusional compulsion (as result of her mental illness) which overmastered her will to resist committing the crime,” the order states.

Ingram ordered Calabrese-Lewis to be admitted to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for an evaluation of her present mental condition. Upon completion of that evaluation, a report will be issued to all parties by DBHDD about her mental condition and whether or not the she meets the criteria for civil commitment.

The order was signed by Calabrese-Lewis, her attorney, a Fulton County assistant district attorney and Judge Ingram.

Security footage of the retention pond on the night of May 11, 2023, shows Calabrese-Lewis leading her daughter through some bushes to the water’s edge and walking back six minutes later without the child. Nirvana was discovered by police in the pond, face-down and not breathing.

The child was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Calabrese-Lewis was arrested the same day as the baby’s body was found in what police described as a mental breakdown. Sandy Springs police had encountered her a day before the child’s death.

Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

They were called on May 10, 2023, to check on reports of a woman without shoes wandering along Peachtree-Dunwoody Road with an unclothed child, according to the warrants obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The child’s father later told police that the family didn’t wear shoes as part of their spiritual practice.

Police said Calabrese-Lewis was at times coherent and other times erratic or ambiguously confusing while talking to law enforcement.

Police have said there wasn’t much they could have done because no crime had been committed at that time and the “parties were not in any immediate danger, but there appeared to be some family assistance needs,” a spokesperson said at the time.

A referral to the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services was made instead, with the agency placing the matter on five-day intake response.

DFCS confirmed it had opened a case against the mother on May 10, 2023, attempting a home visit the following day.

On the night of May 11, Sandy Springs police responded to a disturbance call and encountered Calabrese-Lewis in a parking deck on Concourse Parkway near the King and Queen towers, an area between I-285 and Ga. 400 filled with corporate office parks. Calabrese-Lewis was distraught and “having some type of breakdown,” according to police.

The child’s father then arrived and asked about the toddler, to which Calabrese-Lewis responded, according to police, “at the bottom of the pool.”

A missing child alert was then issued at 7:20 p.m. as authorities fanned out to begin searching all the bodies of water in the area. The child was eventually found in a narrow pond that is bordered by Concourse Parkway and Peachtree Dunwoody Road.

She was rushed to Children’s Scottish Rite Hospital, but despite first responders performing life-saving measures, she did not survive.

The child’s aunt, Kelsia Oliver, wrote on a public post that the loss is a deep pain that the family is learning to process.

“The unimaginable has happened to my baby brother, and his only baby girl was taken from him,” the aunt wrote. “Nirvana Genesis (Oliver), you are loved, sweet girl. I am so sorry this happened to you. Until we meet again.”