ROCKLAND, Maine — The state and defense offered contrasting scenarios during the opening arguments Monday in the trial of Aziayh Scott on what led to the death of 22-month-old Quayshawn Wilson.
Scott, 24, of Louisiana is charged with manslaughter in the May 29, 2024, death. He has pleaded not guilty.
A jury of 12 plus three alternates was selected Monday morning, with opening statements in the afternoon by Maine Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin and lead defense attorney Christopher MacLean. Justice John O’Neil is presiding over the trial that may last into next week in Knox County Superior Court.
An autopsy performed on the child by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta determined that the cause of the child’s death was blunt force trauma, specifically a severely lacerated liver.
The lead prosecutor told jurors the evidence will show that the only person who could have inflicted the injuries on the child was Scott. She said Scott, Quayshawn’s mother, and the child arrived in Owls Head at 4:30 a.m. May 28 after a very long drive from Louisiana. The child’s mother is a traveling certified nursing assistant and had an assignment at a MaineHealth facility in the area. Robbin said a video will show the child was energetic.
“But the story doesn’t have a happy ending,” Robbin said.
The next day, Scott watched the child as his mother went to work. The child’s mother came to the apartment for lunch between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on May 29 and the child was happy and eating.
At 7 p.m., Scott picked up the child’s mother from work and they went to Walmart in Thomaston. The prosecutor said the mother believed the child was asleep in his car seat in the back seat of the car.
“Unbeknownst to the mother, the child was dying,” the assistant attorney general said.
When the mother returned, she found the child was not breathing. She grabbed her child and ran around the parking lot asking for help. One CNA trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation came to her and they put the child down on a sweater and began CPR. Another former CNA then joined in to help.
A 911 call to Knox County Regional Communications was made at 7:28 p.m., and at 7:31 p.m. Thomaston Police Officer Mark Tibbetts arrived and took over CPR efforts until Thomaston emergency medical services personnel arrived two minutes later. Quayshawn was rushed to MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport, and despite their best efforts, the child was declared dead at 8:30 p.m., the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney MacLean said when a child dies, people want answers. But, he said, the state’s case is based solely on circumstantial evidence. There is no direct evidence that Scott inflicted any injuries on the child, MacLean said.
Instead, MacLean said improper CPR by one of the initial women who responded to help likely caused the lacerated liver and the child dying from internal bleeding. He said a 4-second snippet of a video from the police officer’s body camera will show that the CPR being performed by one of the women was being done improperly, with her hands in the wrong place, that could have caused the internal injury. He said the woman made a heroic attempt to save the child but her efforts may have led to the death. He said she had just come from dinner at a restaurant where she had consumed one drink and part of a second drink.
The defense attorney also urged the jurors to be aware of their biases. Justice O’Neil also gave the jurors instructions on implicit bias and to not treat anyone differently based on their race or other factors. Scott is Black.
“Protect him as a citizen under our Constitution,” MacLean told jurors as he concluded his opening statements.
Witnesses were expected to begin offering testimony Tuesday morning.
In affidavits filed by the state last year, the state had said that a neighbor recalled seeing Scott carrying the child to the car the afternoon of May 29 and the boy’s head was leaning back in an awkward way. However, defense attorney MacLean said at an earlier court hearing that the neighbor originally said the child appeared to be asleep, but then police asked a leading question to get that answer.
The child had no old injuries that would indicate prior abuse.
Scott was arrested June 5, 2024, in Louisiana on a warrant issued out of Knox County. He was extradited to Maine on July 18 last year. The manslaughter charge alleges Scott “did recklessly or with criminal negligence cause the death of a minor child.”
The child’s mother, Shaneka Washington, submitted a letter to the court on Nov. 13, 2024. She said the state is falsely accusing an innocent man.
The court had called a pool of 120 jurors who filled out questionnaires last week and came in Monday morning for the final selection.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.
