Danny Adams is led out of Androscoggin County Superior Court Wednesday afternoon after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
AUBURN — A Lewiston man Wednesday pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the suffocation death of his infant son.
Danny Adams, 26, also had been indicted on a murder charge. That charge will be dismissed by prosecutors. Sentencing was set for March 24.
Adams will continue to be held at Androscoggin County Jail until sentencing.
Adams faces up to 30 years in prison followed by a maximum of six years on probation.
Attorneys discussed with a judge earlier this week a possible sentence agreeable to both sides, but failed to reach agreement.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea reviewed the case she would have presented at trial later this month.
Zainea said first responders would have testified that they were dispatched to Adams’ home at 77 Rideout Ave. on Dec. 14, where they found his 14-week-old son, Zade, unresponsive.
Adams had been performing CPR on the infant, but firefighters and paramedics would testify that Zade Adams showed signs he had died sometime earlier. He was pronounced dead at the scene after no neurological activity could be detected.
The responders noticed bruising around the infant’s forehead, mouth, cheeks and chin, they would have testified.
Police would have testified that Adams said he had checked on Zade an hour after his feeding and had a “funny feeling that something was wrong.” He said he started CPR after he failed to get a response.
Adams told police the bruising resulted from his efforts to revive his son by CPR.
The infant’s clothing, bedding and pacifiers were collected and taken to the Maine Crime Laboratory in Augusta where they were tested. Analysts confirmed human blood from Zade Adams on all of the items.
Adams later said the bruising around his son’s head was caused when he tripped while carrying the infant up stairs at their home three days before Zade’s death.
In a second interview with Adams, police said he told them he had squeezed Zade about a month before his death to explain an older rib fracture that was noted by the chief medical examiner during an autopsy.
Adams told police he had squeezed his son to get him to stop crying. He also said he had previously pushed Zade’s head down out of frustration in an effort to keep him from moving. He also said that the bruises could have been the result of pressing the pacifier in his son’s mouth “too hard.”
During a third interview, Adams told police he put Zade’s pacifier in his mouth and held the palm of his hand over his son’s mouth to prevent Zade from spitting it out. Adams said he did that two or three times. The bruises on the infant’s forehead were likely from Adams’ fingertips that he used to hold Zade’s body down against the mattress while on his stomach in his crib.
“He did maintain that he did not think that he had killed Zade,” Zainea told the court Wednesday.
A medical examiner would have testified that the infant died from asphyxiation caused by chest compression and a blocked airway. Zade was otherwise a healthy child, the medical examiner would have said in court, Zaniea said.
Manslaughter is defined as recklessly, or with criminal negligence, causing the death of another human being.
Danny Adams, left, and his attorney, Donald Hornblower, listen to proceedings Wednesday afternoon in Androscoggin County Superior Court, where he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea outlines the case against Danny Adams Wednesday afternoon in Androscoggin County Superior Court, where Adams pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Danny Adams waits Wednesday afternoon for Justice MaryGay Kennedy to enter Androscoggin County Superior Court, where he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.