A woman who faced murder charges after her toddler was found dead in a pond has been found not guilty by reason of insanity, two years after the tragic event. Judge Sukura Ingram made the ruling in a decision published on April 18, stating that Asia Calabrese-Lewis was suffering from bipolar disorder and experiencing “mania with psychotic features at the time of the offense.”
The heartbreaking case centred on the death of 22-month-old Nirvana Oliver. Calabrese-Lewis had originally been charged with two counts of murder and one count of first-degree cruelty to children.
In her judgement, Ingram explained that while Calabrese-Lewis is now considered competent to stand trial, she was not mentally capable of understanding her actions at the time of the incident. The court has ordered her to remain under the care of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities for further evaluation.
According to her affidavit, on May 11, 2023, when officers from the Sandy Springs Police Department responded to reports of a disturbance at 2 Concourse Parkway. When they arrived, they found Calabrese-Lewis “having some type of episode.” The child’s father arrived at the scene and asked her where their daughter was. Calabrese-Lewis replied that their child “was deceased in a pool.”
Officers and paramedics quickly began searching the nearby pools and ponds. Eventually, they located Nirvana Oliver in a retention pond. Despite emergency efforts, she was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
An affidavit revealed that just after 6 p.m. on the day of the incident, CCTV footage showed Calabrese-Lewis walking with her daughter down an embankment to the pond. The two entered the water and were there for about six minutes. Calabrese-Lewis then emerged from the pond alone.
Police were called to the area after reports of a woman “naked and rubbing up against motor vehicles in the parking deck.” When they made contact with her, she told them her daughter had drowned and was at the bottom of a swimming pool.
In her final remarks, Judge Ingram wrote that Calabrese-Lewis “did not have the mental capacity to distinguish between right and wrong and that she acted because of a delusional compulsion… which overmastered her will to resist committing the crime.”
The case has left many shaken, highlighting the devastating impact untreated mental illness can have—and raising difficult questions about how it’s handled within the justice system.