PORTLAND — A Buckfield man convicted of manslaughter in the 2020 death of his 2-month-old daughter appealed his verdict and sentence Tuesday to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Attorneys for 32-year-old Trevor Averill argued that a new trial should be ordered or the sentence reconsidered due to what they deem numerous errors committed by the trial court.
Averill was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2025 after two days of jury deliberations.
In their appeal, Averill’s attorneys argued that the court should not have allowed video of rescue efforts to save the life of 2-month-old Harper Averill to be admitted as evidence at trial. They also argued that autopsy photos of the deceased girl likewise should have been omitted as evidence.
Such visual evidence, argued attorneys Kurt C. Peterson and Walter F. McKee, may have inspired an emotional response from the jury rather than a reasoned review of the evidence.
“After seeing these graphic and disturbing photographs of a deceased two-month-old, it is reasonable to believe that a jury would be inflamed to action,” McKee wrote in an appeal brief, “that they would want to assign blame to someone based on the photographs themselves and not on the evidence (or the lack thereof).”
Peterson argued Tuesday that the photos and videos offered “minimum probative value” as evidence, although the supreme court justices pushed back on that argument.
“They had a great deal of value when mixed in with the expert’s testimony,” Justice Andrew Mead said.
According to trial testimony, Averill had taken the baby downstairs for feeding just after midnight on July 22, 2020. Minutes later, Averill hollered out to the child’s mother, who found Harper limp and unresponsive.
Medics brought the child by helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she died four days later.
During the trial, which began in January 2025, 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.
Defense attorneys presented their own experts at trial; experts who suggested that Harper may have died from complications of injuries suffered when she was accidentally dropped weeks before her death.
Averill was ultimately convicted of manslaughter. The jury declined to convict him on a second charge of depraved indifference murder, for which he could have faced life in prison.
In their appeal, Averill’s attorneys took exception to testimony at trial that depicted injuries found on Harper’s body — specifically old rib and skull fractures — they claim were not pertinent to Averill’s role in her death.
“Simply put, the experts could not identify when the rib fracture occurred and who or what caused the rib fracture — but it had nothing to do with what occurred on July 22, 2020,” McKee wrote in his brief. “Furthermore, the existence of a skull fracture was a highlight of the State’s case in chief, but, similar to the rib fracture, it was in the process of healing, so it would be inconsistent with having occurred on July 22, 2020.
“There is a total lack of evidence about when these fractures occurred,” McKee wrote, “and how they occurred, let alone that they were caused by Trevor.”
Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley disputed that assertion, saying that it was made clear at trial what had caused Harper’s death.
“Every physician who attended to Harper agree the only plausible medical explanation that could account for all of her injuries was inflicted trauma,” Sibley said. “And because the effects of her devastating injuries were instantaneous, the fatal injuries could only have been inflicted by the person in sole care and custody of her when she became symptomatic. There is no dispute that that person was Mr. Averill.”
According to Sibley, Harper’s injuries at the time of her death included severe retinal hemorrhages in both eyes, extensive bleeding in her spinal column, an acute fracture on the back of her skull “and injuries to her brain so severe that her brain was effectively dead.”
In their appeal, Averill’s attorneys also argued that trial court Justice Jennifer Archer erred by denying the defense lawyer’s motion for acquittal at the conclusion of trial. An acquittal should have been granted, the attorneys said, because the State’s evidence pertaining to the cause of Harper’s death was “merely speculative.”
They further argued that the sentence handed down by Archer was “heavy-handed,” and that they were based on Harper’s prior injuries and by the state’s assertion that Averill had not taken responsibility for his role in Harper’s death.
But in court Tuesday, Sibley suggested that the state made no errors when imposing the sentence. Averill’s attitude about the death of his daughter, she said, was an important factor.
“The court’s finding of Mr. Averill’s failure to take responsibility is supported by affirmative evidence in the record that includes his repeated, implausible explanations for his daughter’s condition and injuries at the most crucial time when medical personnel was trying to save her life,” Sibley told the court. “By doing so, he placed his desire to avoid accountability over the medical needs of his infant daughter.”
The attorneys insisted that the sentence was overly harsh considering that Averill had only a minor criminal history and that even Harper’s family had expressed desire for a lighter sentence.
The justices did not make a decision on the appeal Tuesday. That decision is expected later in the year.
