BANGOR, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court next week will consider whether the manslaughter conviction of Dustin Brown in the death of his 3-month-old son, Xander Brown, on Nov. 25, 2012, should be set aside.
Superior Court Justice William Anderson in January 2016 found that Brown, 23, of Bangor was criminally negligent in caring for his son following a jury-waived trial. A year ago, Anderson sentenced Brown to 12 years in prison with all but 4½ years suspended to be followed by four years of probation.
Justices will hear oral arguments Friday morning at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland.
Experts for the prosecution during the trial said the baby died of bleeding and tearing in his brain, an injury most likely caused by violent shaking. A defense expert said he died of cardiac arrest after choking on formula.
Brown, who did not take the stand, told police he was alone and feeding his son when the baby suddenly went limp. The infant’s mother, Alaina Cain Stacy, now 20, of Bangor, testified that Brown told her he had been feeding Xander, and when he went to burp him Xander’s head struck his chin.
“The state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what the defendant did,” Jamesa Drake, the Auburn attorney representing Brown in the appeal, said in her brief. “The state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what the reasonable standard of conduct was and the state failed to prove that whatever the defendant did constituted a gross deviation from that base line standard of care. [Anderson’s] finding that the defendant acted in a criminally negligent fashion is not based on legally sufficient proof.”
Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber argued in his brief that there was sufficient evidence for Anderson to find Brown guilty. Macomber pointed out that Maine hospitals where babies are born have made a concerted effort to reduce the number of children injured by so-called shaken baby syndrome episodes by showing new parents a video on managing collicky infants called “The Period of Purple Crying.” Xander’s mother said in a letter read at Brown’s sentencing that Brown had watched the video at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor before the couple was allowed to take the baby home.
“To suggest nearly a decade after this program was implemented statewide that vigorously shaking an infant is not a gross deviation from that standard of care that any parent should use with his or her child flies in the face of the evidence, norms of accepted conduct, and this court’s jurisprudence,” Macomber wrote.
Brown was released Oct. 6 on $7,000 cash bail. He asked at sentencing to remain free while his appeal was pending but Anderson initially refused and ordered Brown be taken into custody immediately. The judge said that because Brown’s girlfriend was expecting a baby in a few months, it was in its best interest that the father not care for it.
After that child was stillborn, however, Anderson granted Drake’s motion that Brown be released on bail.
There is no timetable under which the court must issue a decision.