BANGOR, Maine — The manslaughter trial of a Bangor man concluded Thursday after a medical expert testified that 3-month-old Xander Brown died of cardiac arrest after he choked on the formula his father was feeding him, not of a traumatic brain injury as prosecution witnesses testified.
The baby’s father, Dustin Brown, 21, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. He did not take the stand in his own defense.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson took the case under advisement Thursday afternoon after hearing three days of testimony. He did not say when he would issue a decision but said it “would not be long.”
Xander died Nov. 25, 2012, at Eastern Maine Medical Center. The baby was born prematurely Aug. 22, 2012, to Brown and Alaina Cain Stacy, now 19, of Bangor, who never married. Cain Stacy testified Tuesday that Brown told her he had been feeding Xander, and when he went to burp him, Xander’s head struck his chin.
Under cross-examination, retired medical examiner Dr. Margaret Greenwald, who performed the autopsy on the baby, said Wednesday that such contact would not have been forceful enough to cause the blood clots and the tearing found in the baby’s brain.
The testimony for the defense Thursday of Dr. Donald Stanley of Nobleboro, a pathologist, came on the final day of Brown’s jury-waived trial. It contradicted testimony about what caused the boy’s death from Greenwald and neuropathologist Dr. Elizabeth Bundock, the deputy medical examiner for Vermont.
“There was insufficient evidence of head trauma to have caused death due to bleeding in the brain,” Stanley said.
Stanley testified that based on the reports he had reviewed from paramedics and doctors who treated the baby at EMMC’s emergency room, he concluded that Xander aspirated formula into his lungs and choked, causing cardiac arrest. Under cross-examination he said that although no formula was found in the lungs at the autopsy, the reports stated a milky fluid was sucked out of the baby’s throat and lungs during treatment.
Bundock said that bleeding in the boy’s brain and eyes showed that he had suffered a traumatic brain injury most likely caused by the movement of the brain with substantial force. None of the doctors used the term “shaken baby syndrome” to describe the baby’s injuries.
In her closing argument, Assistant Attorney General Deb Cashman told the judge that no one else could have injured the baby because Brown was alone with the child when he became unresponsive.
“It is a reasonable inference that while Dustin and Xander were alone in the bedroom, the father caused the injuries that damaged the baby’s brain,” she said.
Hunter Tzovarras, who is defending Brown with attorney Marvin Glazier, told Anderson in his closing argument that the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Xander died as a result of something his father did.
“Dustin Brown did not kill his son, but we don’t have to prove that,” Tzovarras said. “I called it a ‘medical mystery’ earlier, but maybe ‘medical dispute’ is a better term, but even that doesn’t tell us how the baby died.”
Brown pleaded not guilty to manslaughter Jan. 3, 2013, after being indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury the day before. He has been free on bail since Jan. 18, 2013.
If convicted, Brown faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.