‘Sick’ mom who killed 4-year-old son during nasty custody battle found dead in NYS prison

A heartless Westchester County mom who smothered her 4-year-old son to death during a bitter battle custody battle 14 years ago was found dead in an upstate prison cell, state officials said.

Manuela Morgado, 60, who was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing little Jason “Jake” Reish in 2012, was found unresponsive at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester on Wednesday, the Department of Correction and Community Supervision said.

The cause and details of Morgado’s death have not been released.

“Our hearts remain with Jason Reish’s family, who continue to grieve the loss of their beloved son,” District Attorney Susan Cacace’s office said in a statement on Thursday. “May his memory persist as a source of strength and comfort.”

Morgado was found around 2 a.m. inside her her cell, lohud.com reported.

She was in a nasty legal fight for custody with the boy’s dad, prominent Manhattan surgeon Tim Reisch, when she suffocated Jake with a pillow in her Mamaroneck home on Oc. 1, 2012 — and was found cradling her young son’s lifeless body when police arrived.

The troubled mom had given Jake pills but resorted to suffocating him to kill him.

“Now no one will take him from me,” she told detectives during questioning, lohud said.

Morgado planned a murder suicide, and told cops her son’s death was meant to be “quick and peaceful so we could be happy together forever.”

Instead, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2014 and was sentenced to prison.

At her sentencing, Tim Reisch called her a “sick, twisted narcissistic monster.”

Morgado told the judge at the time that she lived “in a constant state of remorse.”

A spokesperson for the county Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case on Thursday.