AUBURN — Todd Gamache, the local man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the 2007 death of his then-girlfriend’s baby, wants the court to withdraw his plea and give him the trial he never had.

In a post-conviction review in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday, Gamache, 27, told Justice Robert Clifford that he didn’t understand what manslaughter was or what, exactly, he was pleading guilty to in 2008. He said he accidentally dropped 8-month-old Emmy-Leigh Cole and was not reckless or criminally negligent as his guilty plea indicates.

“I thought it was a way to take responsibility for an accident,” he said Tuesday.    

After his plea in 2008, Gamache was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with four years suspended. He is serving that sentence. 

Emmy-Leigh died in March 2007, soon after Gamache baby-sat her for less than an hour. In the months that followed, Gamache would tell several different versions of what happened that day, ultimately telling a judge that he accidentally dropped her after giving her a bath.

Doctors, however, said her injuries didn’t fit with Gamache’s claims. A medical examiner found she died of a blunt impact head injury. Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said there were at least three impact sites on her head and multiple injuries to her body.

A grand jury indicted Gamache on a count of murder. In February 2008, he agreed to plea to manslaughter and the murder charge was dismissed. During the plea hearing, a judge asked Gamache whether he understood his right to maintain his innocence and take his case to trial. Gamache said he did. The judge asked whether Gamache believed waiving his right to trial was the best thing to do at the time. Gamache said he did.

During that hearing, Gamache first tried to plead “no contest.” After a quick conference between the attorneys and the judge, he changed his manslaughter plea to “guilty.”

On Tuesday, Gamache said he didn’t understand that, by pleading guilty, he was admitting to being reckless or criminally negligent in the baby’s death. If he had, he said, he never would had pleaded guilty. 

“This was never reckless,” he said.

He said neither his lawyer at the time, David Van Dyke, nor the judge at the time, Justice Thomas Delahanty II, defined manslaughter for him or told him what pleading guilty to it would mean. While he understood he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, he said Van Dyke told him his crime fit sentencing of five to 10 years. Instead, he was sentenced to 18.

During the post-conviction review, Gamache also said Van Dyke failed to challenge the state’s evidence or file an appeal as he’d wanted.  On Tuesday, he was represented by a new lawyer, Andrews Bruce Campbell of Bowdoinham.

On the stand, Van Dyke said he explained manslaughter to Gamache several times. Although he was unhappy with the 18-year sentence ultimately imposed on Gamache, he initially thought a manslaughter plea “was a very good result” and said Gamache agreed.

He said Gamache still had a defensible case if he went to trial.

In the courtroom, Gamache’s family supported his request for a trial. On the stand, his mother, Abby Buckwald, told the judge about her dealings with Van Dyke and said she told him “numerous times” that her son wanted to appeal his sentence. She said Gamache didn’t mistreat either his own daughter or his girlfriend’s children.

“I never saw him scream or yell,” she said.

Emmy-Leigh’s family was also in the courtroom. They opposed a trial.

“Enough’s enough. Just do the time,” said Emmy-Leigh’s mother, Libby St. Pierre. “Medical evidence is medical evidence. He’s just grasping at straws.”

The judge is expected to make his decision in the coming weeks.

ltice@sunjournal.com

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