AUBURN – No one except Todd Gamache knows what happened during those 45 minutes that he was alone with 8-month-old Emmy-Leigh Cole shortly before she was rushed to the hospital where she later died.

Before his sentencing Wednesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court, Gamache, 24, told the judge her death was an accident, caused when he dropped her after giving her a bath.

Justice Thomas Delahanty II didn’t believe Gamache.

“This is not an accident,” Delahanty said before imposing an 18-year prison sentence with four years suspended.

Nor was it murder, as suggested by some members of the victim’s families, Delahanty said.

Gamache pleaded guilty to manslaughter, causing his former girlfriend’s baby’s death by reckless or negligent conduct. A grand jury had indicted him on a murder charge, which was later dismissed.

Gamache’s ever-changing story to police that he had accidentally dropped Cole during and after her bath “stretches credulity in my mind,” Delahanty said as he explained his logic in reaching Gamache’s sentence.

The outstanding athlete, who co-captained the Edward Little High School football team, wasn’t likely to fumble an infant accidentally, Deputy Attorney General William Stokes told the judge. Moreover, Gamache was familiar with infants. He had a young daughter himself.

Dressed in a light blue jail suit, his ankles shackled, Gamache stood and read a written statement. He apologized to Cole, to her mother and other friends and family of the baby.

“This has been a tragic and life-changing accident,” he said. “I want you to understand; I am not a killer. I am not an abuser,” he told Cole’s father, Michael Cole.

Delahanty said Gamache’s remarks may have been heartfelt, but were also laced with “self-interest.”

Gamache’s parents, an aunt and uncle painted a picture of a star athlete, a kind and devoted son and father to his daughter.

By turns, family members of the victim spoke of lost trust, nightmares and deep sadness.

Libby St. Pierre, the victim’s mother, clutched a pink teddy bear, tears choking her words.

“There’s no words. My life is hell, a living hell ever since my daughter passed away,” she said.

Gamache, his face reddened, removed his glasses and cried quietly as his former girlfriend addressed the court.

St. Pierre said she was angry her baby is gone, was taken away and that she had to watch her die.

“I just want to sit in my room and do nothing,” she said. She has nightmares about picking her daughter out of her crib only to wake up and find her daughter isn’t there.

St. Pierre’s mother remembered her daughter at the hospital where Emmy-Leigh Cole died, screaming and wailing, “Come back to mama, come back to mama,” said Jeannie LaPlant.

St. Pierre had to make the decision to stop Cole’s life support, to make funeral arrangements, to pick out her coffin and the clothes in which she would be buried, her mother said.

“The murder of my granddaughter … has brought me and my family relentless sorrow,” she said.

Denisa LaFlamme, Cole’s aunt, said she bought a baby tiara for Cole shortly before she died and never had a chance to give it to her. She wore it in her casket, LaFlamme said.

Dixie Rowe, another aunt, told Gamache: “I pray you have a long life and every time you close your eyes you see Emmy’s big blue eyes looking back at you.”

Justice Delahanty gave Gamache four years of probation after prison, during which he would have to get counseling and have no contact with St. Pierre or her family.

He talked about the “darker side” of Gamache that people ignored that was tending toward petty crime and irresponsible behavior.

Prosecutors had asked for a 20-year sentence with all but 17 suspended. Stokes said afterward he was satisfied with the judge’s ruling.

“I think it’s a fair sentence,” he said.

In the courtroom, Stokes talked about the unknown means of Cole’s death, not caused by gunshot nor a stab wound.

“That’s what makes these cases so difficult,” he told the judge. There were “at least three impact sites” on Cole’s head and multiple injuries to her torso, he said. In all, she suffered “very extensive and catastrophic injuries.”

Those injuries were not consistent with Gamache’s account of events.

“We don’t buy that story at all, your honor,” Stokes said.

Police said Gamache was taking care of Cole at her Broad Street home while St. Pierre was at a cheerleading practice. Cole was rushed to the emergency room and died two days later when she was taken off life support.

Gamache gave police three written statements during numerous interviews. In his final version, he said Cole hit her head in the bathtub after he dropped her because she was slippery. She later fell on the living room floor, he said.

Police said that story didn’t fit with Cole’s injuries, according to doctors who examined her injuries.