WEST BATH, Maine (AP) - A Maine teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing his grandmother and was sentenced as an adult to 27 years in prison.
Dominic Sylvester was 16 when he dialed 911 to report his grandmother and guardian was unconscious on Feb. 26, 2018, in the Bowdoinham home they shared. He later told police that he’d hit Beulah “Marie” Sylvester on the head with a stick.
Sylvester originally pleaded not guilty to murder last year after a judge ruled he would be tried as an adult and a grand jury returned an indictment.
He changed his plea to guilty on Tuesday.
Sylvester, now 18, bent over his knees as he listened to the emotional statements of two relatives, including his birth mother, Tiffany Sylvester, who wept after testifying about her loss, the Portland Press Herald reported.
“Nobody wanted to help her. Not our family, not DHHS, not the sheriff’s department, when they all knew what was going on,” Tiffany Sylvester said, referring to previous incidents in which her mother had been hurt.
The victim suffered numerous cracked ribs, bruises, cuts, scrapes and a head injury, according to law enforcement officials. She’d previously suffered a broken arm and broken wrist at the hands of the defendant, prosecutors said.
The defense contended Sylvester was a victim of neglect, and asked the judge to consider reports that he’d been a victim of physical abuse, as well.
But prosecutors described Sylvester as the aggressor and said he would represent a danger to the public if released at age 21, the maximum amount of time he would’ve faced as a juvenile.
A murder conviction as an adult carries a 25-year minimum sentence with a maximum potential term of life in prison.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.