BANGOR, Maine — Wallace Antworth stood outside the courtroom Thursday where his grandson’s killer had just pleaded guilty to manslaughter and been sentenced to 25 years in prison, with all but 17 suspended.
The paternal grandfather of 5-month-old Korbyn Garfield Antworth, who died of injuries inflicted by Samuel T. Moore of Bangor 16 months ago, said the sentence imposed was not long enough.
“They have to do what the law says,” Antworth said. “That will never, ever bring my grandson back.”
Moore, 27, was indicted March 26, 2014, on one count of depraved indifference murder and one count of manslaughter in connection with the death of the 5-month-old boy on March 5, 2014. Moore was employed by the infant’s family as a caregiver at the time.
In a plea agreement with the Maine attorney general’s office, the manslaughter sentence imposed was jointly recommended by the prosecutor and the defense team.
The murder charge was dismissed. Moore was scheduled to be tried in August.
Moore also pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting Korbyn’s 3½-year-old brother and admitted violating his probation. He was on probation for a 2008 arson conviction when the child died. The arson charge stemmed from a fire at an Orono apartment house on Oct. 14, 2007, in which no one was injured.
Superior Court Justice Ann Murray accepted the plea agreement and imposed the sentence on Moore, which included a concurrent sentence of 5 years on the assault charge, six months concurrent on the probation violation, and six years of probation when he gets out.
Moore emotionally apologized Thursday for his actions.
“I will never forgive myself for what has happened,” he said. “I hope that someday they will find peace. I hope that they will accept my sincere remorse.”
The boys’ parents, William and Brittany Antworth, did not attend Thursday’s hearing.
The 5-month-old suffered 11 rib fractures and had bleeding in his brain, Assistant Attorney General John Alsop told the judge Thursday. The infant suffered injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Moore told police after his arrest that he was “tossing [the baby] around, and at that point, [the elder boy] struck him in the groin, he dropped [the baby] approximately 6 feet, and he was not caught and did strike the floor,” Bangor Detective Brent Beaulieu wrote in the affidavit unsealed after Moore was indicted. “Moore said that he then choked [the elder boy] out of anger.”
The assault of the older brother was uncovered as Bangor police investigated the infant’s death, according to the affidavit. Moore told the boy’s mother that the child had “ended up choking himself with a makeshift cape that he had tied around his neck himself.” The boy’s face was covered with petechiae, small red or purple spots on the body caused by a minor hemorrhage, according to the affidavit.
Moore faced up to 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge. On the assault charge, he faced up to 10 years in prison.
If convicted of murder, Moore faced between 25 years and life in prison.
Moore has been held at the Penobscot County Jail since his arrest 16 months ago unable to post $100,000 bail. That time will be applied to his sentence.
After noting that Moore “was man enough to admit that he did it,” Wallace Antworth told reporters at an impromptu press conference after the sentencing outside the Penobscot Judicial Center that the conclusion of the case brought him no closure.
The grandfather became overcome with emotion when asked about his vanity license plate that reads: KORBYN.
“He was the type of baby … he never cried,” he said. “He was just in the first steps of learning how to crawl. He was just one happy kid and for some nutcase to go around and kill him like that or beat him to death like that it’s beyond me. I hope he rots in hell.”