A mother from New York has died in prison more than a decade after she was found guilty of smothering her 4-year-old son to death with a pillow.
The Westchester County District Attorney confirmed that Manuela Morgado was sentenced to serve 20 years to life in prison in 2014 after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her son.
The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said that Morgado was found dead in her cell at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility on Wednesday, March 4, according to the Journal News.
Her death is currently under investigation after she was found dead around 2 a.m. Additionally, her death was recorded on the DOCCS’ website.
Morgado was serving time after she fatally smothered her son, Jason “Jake” Reish, with a pillow in October 2012. Journal News added that the smothering took place after she gave her son Benadryl.
After she killed her son, Morgado reportedly attempted to die by suicide. Journal News also reported that she left a note.
After her son was found dead, Morgado spoke to police and reportedly told them that she intended for Jake’s death to be “quick and peaceful so we could be happy together forever,” per the outlet.
Morgado was in the middle of a custody fight with her ex-fiancé at the time of her son’s death, which may have motivated the murder.
“This defendant methodically planned and carried out the murder of her four-year-old child, a child whose life was taken well before his time by the very person whose job it was to protect him,” then-District Attorney Janet DiFiore said after Morgado received her sentence.
Morgado’s death marks the fourth person to die at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in the past four weeks, according to New York Focus.
“It’s an anomaly, and a concerning anomaly, to see three deaths” take place in early 2026, director of the Correctional Association of New York Sumeet Sharma previously said after the third death.
Deaths are rare at the prison, as only six people died at Bedford Hills between 2020 and 2025.
Pamela Smart, who was incarcerated with Morgado, recalled watching prison staff attempt to revive her late friend. “I watched the whole heartbreaking thing, but there was nothing they could do. … I will never forget how blue her feet were,” she told New York Focus.
Smart also shared that Morgado was a talented artist and she would often decorate the walls within the prison. “She exuded light and joy in every space she entered,” she said. “I cannot believe she is gone.”
All of the deaths that took place at the prison will be reviewed by the State Commission of Correction, according to director of public information for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Thomas Mailey.
Mailey went on to say that any deaths that appear to have not been caused by natural causes will be “thoroughly investigated by New York State Police and DOCCS’ Office of Special Investigations.”
