AUBURN — An Androscoggin County Superior Court jury on Friday found Trevor Averill guilty of manslaughter in the death of his 2-month-old daughter in 2020.
After two days of deliberations, the jury reached a unanimous verdict for the 31-year-old Buckfield resident. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
Averill was not found guilty of a charge of depraved indifference murder, for which he could have faced life in prison.
The verdict was announced about 5 p.m. Averill’s attorney, James Howaniec, reacted with dismay to the jury’s decision.
“This was a very disturbing verdict,” he said. “The state produced no evidence that this young father killed the 2-month-old daughter that he loved. They produced medical theories about the cause of bleeding in Harper’s brain, but zero evidence that he shook her to death. To the contrary, Harper’s mother said Trevor was joyfully feeding his daughter when she suffered her medical collapse.
“Shaken baby syndrome is an extremely controversial theory that has been criticized for over 50 years, and there are many controversial convictions based on this theory,” Howaniec said. “Young fatherhood was the happiest time of Trevor’s life. He did not kill his own two-month-old daughter. He is a hardworking young man who was supporting his young family, without any history of violence whatsoever. We continue to believe strongly in Trevor’s innocence, and that this young man has been wrongfully convicted in an enormous miscarriage of justice.”
During the trial, which began Jan. 21 before Justice Jennifer Archer, state prosecutors said Harper Averill died of “non-accidental trauma,” which according to expert witnesses, stemmed from a skull fracture and spinal hemorrhage caused by severe back and forth shaking.
The defense, led by Howaniec and Verne Paradie, argued the baby’s injuries could have been the result of Averill dropping her about a month before she stopped breathing late at night on July 21, 2020. They said she had injuries unknown to the parents that eventually led to the infant’s death.
During closing arguments Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Bogue said Harper Averill’s death would not have occurred if not for Trevor Averill’s conduct.
“This was not just an accident, this was not a mistake,” she said, adding that two doctors concluded the baby had suffered “intentional injuries.”
Bogue said Averill was the only person with the infant at the time, and displayed “a total lack of concern and appreciation for the life of his child.”
In the defense’s closing arguments, Paradie reminded the jury that it must “view the evidence through the lens of beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“As you walk in there, he is innocent,” he told the jury.
The defense also attempted to cast doubt on the state’s conclusions in the case, from the doctors’ testimony to Averill’s attitude as a father.
“The state wants you to infer what he did,” Paradie said. “We repeatedly heard opinions that were not beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In rebuttal, Bogue said the doctors who testified during the trial gave expert opinions that Harper Averill “suffered abuse at the hands of another and that’s what caused her to die.”
On Wednesday, Harper Averill’s mother, Michelle Morin Levesque, testified during the trial.
Levesque, the last witness for the defense, recounted her relationship with Averill from when they met in 2019 to July 26, 2020, when Harper was taken off life support at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
Around 12:30 a.m. on July 22, 2020, Levesque said she woke to Harper fussing for her midnight feeding. Averill offered to bring her downstairs.
Five to eight minutes later, Averill called out to her. Alarmed, she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. Averill, who was neither angry nor frustrated, but frightened, was holding a limp Harper, Levesque said. She said she saw no injuries on her.
After police and EMTs arrived, the unresponsive infant was taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and then flown to Maine Medical Center, where she died July 26, 2020.
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