The medical emergency that ended Braxtyn Smith’s life also began a case that produced three guilty pleas and two prison sentences.
BANGOR, Maine — Braxtyn Smith was already in cardiac arrest when his mother and grandmother carried him into a Bangor emergency room on Feb. 18, 2024, beginning a medical and police response that would reveal years of abuse inside the 10-year-old boy’s home.
The child died later that night, but the investigation that began at the hospital continued for more than two years. His father, Joshua Smith, eventually pleaded guilty to depraved-indifference murder. His mother, Jem Bean, and grandmother, Mistie Latourette, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were each ordered to serve 10 years in prison. The legal case is now approaching its final major stage: Smith, whom prosecutors identified as the main physical abuser, is expected to be sentenced in September and faces a possible life term.
Medical workers were the first people outside the household to document the full extent of Braxtyn’s condition. According to a police affidavit and prosecutors’ later statements in court, the boy was not breathing and had no pulse when he arrived at St. Joseph Hospital. Staff members noted bruises across several parts of his body and signs that he was badly underweight. He weighed 48 pounds. He was transferred to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center after emergency treatment, but doctors could not save him.
One observation at the hospital became an early clue about conditions in the home. A worker told investigators that material the boy vomited appeared and smelled like dry pet food. Police later received accounts that Braxtyn ate dog food and searched through garbage because the adults caring for him withheld meals. Prosecutors said denying food was used as punishment. They also said he was forced to sleep in a bathroom or other common area with little more than a blanket and was sometimes restrained while he slept.
An autopsy and other medical reviews shifted the case from a suspicious death investigation to a homicide prosecution. Authorities said Braxtyn died from blunt-force trauma and had injuries in different stages of healing, evidence that the violence had occurred repeatedly. Prosecutors described bleeding around his brain, poor nutrition and other signs of long-term neglect and physical harm. The findings did not support the explanation Bean initially offered to police that the boy injured himself during tantrums by throwing his body to the floor.
Investigators then reconstructed daily life in the Bangor residence. Their findings described punishment that went far beyond ordinary discipline. Braxtyn’s hands were tied behind his back, and his ankles or feet were secured to furniture or a plastic tote with zip ties, according to court presentations. He was isolated, denied a bedroom and insulted by the adults responsible for him. Prosecutors said this pattern lasted for about two years and became more severe in the months before his death.
The boy’s education arrangement was an important part of that reconstruction. Braxtyn was homeschooled by Bean and Latourette, leaving him with less regular contact with teachers, school staff and other adults outside the family. Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin told the court that the abuse was not noticed during the two-year period in part because he did not attend a school building. Authorities have not publicly identified a specific report that would have guaranteed intervention, and the available court record does not establish that an outside person knew the full scope of what was happening.
Digital evidence allowed investigators to compare statements from the adults with what they had told one another before Braxtyn died. Text messages described by prosecutors included threats from Smith to strike and kill his son. In one exchange, he said the tired child was going to be slapped and wrote that it “should be fun.” Other messages dealt with how Braxtyn was tied. Smith once questioned Bean about why she had not secured everything, and she replied that she had restrained the boy’s ankles and placed his hands behind his back.
Those communications mattered because they appeared to show awareness and coordination rather than a single adult acting without the knowledge of the others. Prosecutors said Bean helped restrain the child and continued living in the home while the abuse persisted. They accused Latourette of buying zip ties, suggesting that food be withheld and helping hide bruises when Braxtyn appeared in public. Her attorney acknowledged some of those actions but disputed that she caused or could have predicted the boy’s death.
Police arrested Smith, Bean and Latourette after the hospital investigation and initially charged all three with murder. Each pleaded not guilty at the start of the case. The charges placed all three adults on a path toward trials that could have required medical workers, detectives and other witnesses to describe the boy’s injuries and treatment in detail. Over time, however, plea negotiations and changes in the defendants’ positions reshaped the case.
Bean was the first to resolve her charge. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2026 under an agreement with prosecutors. That plea meant she accepted criminal responsibility for causing Braxtyn’s death through conduct that met the legal standard for manslaughter, though she did not plead guilty to murder. Her agreement also made her a potential witness against Smith and Latourette if their cases proceeded to trial.
Smith’s case changed abruptly in June, shortly before jury selection. He had maintained a not-guilty plea and then sought to plead not criminally responsible because of insanity. Two days later, on June 11, he entered a guilty plea to depraved-indifference murder in Penobscot County Superior Court. Justice Ann Murray asked whether he was pleading guilty because he was in fact guilty. Smith said he was. His answer removed the need for prosecutors to prove the charge at trial.
During that hearing, Robbin gave the court a detailed summary of what the state would have presented to jurors. She described starvation, beatings, restraint and medical findings that showed repeated injuries. She also read from messages exchanged over the two years before Braxtyn’s death. Smith said some messages had been taken out of context and characterized some of his words as sarcasm. He told the judge that he had not been trying to kill his son, even as he admitted the murder charge.
Latourette changed her plea the next day. She admitted manslaughter under an agreement that allowed the state to recommend a 25-year sentence with 15 years suspended while permitting her attorney to seek less time. Her plea canceled a bench trial that was due to begin the following week. The defense said Latourette accepted that she made serious choices but argued that providing zip ties or suggesting withheld meals did not make Braxtyn’s death foreseeable.
Murray sentenced Bean and Latourette in late June. Each received a 25-year sentence with all but 10 years suspended, according to local reports. The practical result was a decade in prison for each woman. The judge said Braxtyn had suffered starvation, dehydration, isolation, beatings and restraint at the hands of people who were supposed to protect him. She called the abuse “horrendous.”
The sentencing hearing gave the court a chance to address the conduct of the two women, but it did not establish Smith’s punishment. Murder carries a minimum term of 25 years in Maine, and Smith could be imprisoned for life. The judge will weigh the facts presented by the prosecution and defense before deciding his sentence. The guilty plea prevents a murder trial, but the sentencing process may still place additional evidence and arguments into the public record.
Bean and Latourette have begun serving their sentences while Smith remains in the Penobscot County Jail. No further trial is scheduled, and Smith’s expected September sentencing is the next confirmed proceeding in a case that began when hospital workers recognized that Braxtyn’s condition could not be explained as an ordinary childhood medical emergency.
Author note: Last updated July 13, 2026.