BANGOR, Maine — A Lawrence, Mass., man convicted of manslaughter in the death of his former girlfriend’s 15-month-old son last year was sentenced Thursday afternoon at the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor to 30 years in prison with all but 25 years suspended.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy also sentenced Edgard B. Anziani, 28, to 4 years of probation. He was also ordered to pay $4,500 in restitution, the funeral costs for the victim.

Anziani pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April for the Feb. 25, 2010, death of Damien Lynn, the son of Cheryl Metzger, 22, of Bangor and Patrick Lynn of Orrington. Metzger and Lynn had two children together. Their older child, now 4, lives with his father.

The autopsy found that the boy’s injuries included several broken bones, numerous head injuries and a human bite mark on his arm, Assistant Attorney General Leann Zainea told Murphy in April.

Anziani was indicted in March 2010 on charges of murder and manslaughter. He pleaded not guilty to both charges in April of that year. In a plea agreement with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the murder charge was dismissed Thursday after Anziani was sentenced this summer.

Anziani has been held at Penobscot County Jail since his arrest in March 2010.

The plea agreement does not include sentencing recommendations. If he had been convicted of murder, Anziani would have faced a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.

He had been staying with Metzger on and off for about four months at her apartment at 55 Bald Mountain Drive and was caring for the toddler in the early morning hours of Feb. 23, 2010, while Metzger was in the hospital being treated for abdominal pain, according to police and court documents.

The toddler was unresponsive when rescue personnel responded to a 911 call just after 7 a.m.

Anziani, who had been alone with the child for several hours, met the ambulance and crew in the driveway and handed them the toddler, who “was blue and not breathing,” a police affidavit stated. An hour later, the child was pronounced dead at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Anziani told police, Metzger and her family that the boy was injured when he fell down a flight of stairs at the apartment.

The state medical examiner’s office determined that the toddler’s injuries “could not be explained by a simple fall down six or seven steps,” the affidavit stated.

After receiving the autopsy report, Bangor police charged Anziani with murder on Feb. 25, 2010. By then, he had fled the area.

Anziani was arrested on March 1, 2010, by the FBI in Bladensburg, Md., and returned to Maine 10 days later.

After serving his sentence, Anziani is not likely to be set free; a native of the Dominican Republic who has lived in the United States most of his life, he is expected to be deported.

Reprinted with permission from the Bangor Daily News.

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