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Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of child abuse.
Jem Bean pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2024 death of Braxtyn Smith, her 10-year-old son.
Bean cried as she entered the guilty plea Friday morning in Penobscot County Superior Court. She had been charged with depraved indifference murder.
Braxtyn died Feb. 18, 2024, at a Bangor hospital after months of abuse. His father, Joshua Smith, and his grandmother, Mistie Latourette, are also charged with depraved indifference murder.
The manslaughter plea means Bean acted recklessly or with criminal negligence, instead of with intentional conduct or depraved indifference as a murder charge alleges.
Bean pleaded guilty as part of agreement with the Office of the Maine Attorney General. The state will recommend a sentence of 25 years in prison, defense attorney Hunter Tzovarras said. Under state law the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 30 years.
Braxtyn only weighed 48 pounds at the time of his death — 14 fewer pounds than he did the previous year, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said. He had weighed nearly 62 pounds at a February 2023 well child check.
His cause of death was blunt force injuries in a setting of battered child syndrome, Robbin said. She then read a list of at least 15 injuries — including internal head injuries, burns and bruises across his body, and hemorrhages — that Braxytn had at the time of his death.
“There’s the question of how can a 10-year-old boy sustain these obvious injuries and not come to the attention of DHHS or the authorities,” Robbin said. “Braxtyn was home schooled so no one beyond the mother, father and grandmother knew the extent of the abuse.”
Bean worked weekdays, while Smith was home full time and Latourette was not employed, Robbin said. Bean worked for the Department of Health and Human Services at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Hospital in Bangor in an administrative position.
“Her son was so hungry he was eating out of the trash and the solution was to restrain him,” Robbin said.
Zip ties were found at the home with Braxtyn’s DNA and the medical examiner found marks on Braxtyn that matched zip ties.
Bean had seen Smith punch Braxtyn in the chest, push him down and slap him so hard a handprint was left behind, Robbin said Bean told police.
A 15-page document released in March 2024 outlined the horrific abuse Smith, Bean and Latourette allegedly inflicted on Braxtyn. The adults described to police how the boy was zip tied to chairs and to his parents, forced to dig through the trash for food, and called insulting names, according to the affidavit for probable cause compiled by the Bangor Police Department.
The plea does not mandate Bean’s testimony during the trials for Smith and Latourette, but Tzovarras previously told the Bangor Daily News he expects the state of Maine to call her as a witness.
Bean is in the Penobscot County Jail. Her sentencing will follow the trials scheduled March 23 for Smith and Latourette.
