Joshua Smith entered a guilty plea shortly before trial, while the boy’s mother and grandmother received prison sentences for manslaughter.

BANGOR, Maine — A Maine father pleaded guilty to murder in the death of his 10-year-old son after prosecutors said the child endured about two years of beatings, food deprivation, isolation and restraint before dying at a Bangor hospital in February 2024.

Joshua Smith, 35, admitted to depraved-indifference murder June 11 in Penobscot County Superior Court, days before his trial was scheduled to begin. The plea made him the third adult in Braxtyn Smith’s household to accept criminal responsibility in the case. Braxtyn’s mother, Jem Bean, and his grandmother, Mistie Latourette, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Both women were later ordered to serve 10 years in prison. Smith remains jailed while awaiting a sentencing hearing expected in September. Under Maine law, he could receive a life sentence.

The guilty plea followed an unusual sequence in court. Smith had initially pleaded not guilty after his arrest. Earlier in the week of his murder plea, he sought to change his position to not criminally responsible because of insanity. He then returned to court and admitted the murder charge. When Justice Ann Murray asked whether he was pleading guilty because he had committed the crime, Smith answered yes. His admission ended the prospect of a trial at which prosecutors had planned to present medical evidence, witness testimony and years of messages among the adults in Braxtyn’s home.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin spent nearly 18 minutes describing the state’s expected evidence during the plea hearing. Prosecutors said Braxtyn had been deprived of food, struck repeatedly, restrained with plastic zip ties and forced to sleep without a bed. At times, they said, he slept on a bathroom floor or in a living area with only a blanket. His hands were restrained behind his back, and one of his feet was secured to a plastic storage tote, according to the account presented in court. Prosecutors said the treatment continued over an extended period rather than arising from a single violent episode.

The investigation began after Bean and Latourette brought Braxtyn to a Bangor emergency room on Feb. 18, 2024. Medical workers reported that he was not breathing and had no pulse when he arrived. He weighed 48 pounds and had bruises and other signs of prolonged mistreatment. Doctors restored some circulation and transferred him for further treatment, but he died that night. The medical examiner determined that his death was a homicide caused by blunt-force injuries. Authorities said other medical findings showed malnutrition and repeated trauma over time.

A police affidavit described the boy’s condition and the statements investigators gathered in the first days of the case. One hospital worker told police that material Braxtyn vomited appeared and smelled like dry pet food. Detectives later learned that he had eaten dog food and searched through trash for something to eat when meals were withheld, according to court accounts. Prosecutors said the adults used food as punishment and imposed restrictions that left the child severely underweight. The state’s presentation also described old and new injuries, indicating that the violence did not begin shortly before his death.

Messages recovered by investigators became a central part of the prosecution’s case. In communications described in court and reported by Maine news organizations, Smith threatened to hit and kill his son and discussed how the child was restrained. One message to Latourette said the boy was tired and that Smith intended to slap him, adding that it “should be fun.” In another exchange, Smith questioned Bean about whether she had secured everything she was supposed to secure. Bean responded that she had tied the boy’s ankles to a tote and placed his hands behind his back. The messages were written during the period when prosecutors said the abuse was taking place.

Smith disputed the meaning of some of those communications during his plea hearing. He told the court that portions had been taken out of context and said some of his words were sarcasm. He also said he had not been trying to kill Braxtyn. His guilty plea, however, meant the state did not have to prove its allegations to a jury. In accepting the plea, the court treated Smith’s admission as a resolution of the murder charge, while leaving the length of his sentence for a later hearing. Prosecutors have identified him as the primary person responsible for the physical violence that led to Braxtyn’s death.

Bean, Braxtyn’s mother, reached a separate agreement with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2026. Authorities said she participated in restraining the boy, withholding food and allowing the prolonged mistreatment to continue. She had initially described some of Braxtyn’s injuries as the result of tantrums in which he threw himself to the ground, according to the police affidavit. The state’s evidence, including the messages, medical findings and accounts of the restraints, contradicted the claim that the child’s condition resulted from self-inflicted injuries or ordinary behavioral problems.

Latourette pleaded guilty to manslaughter one day after Smith admitted murder. Her plea canceled a bench trial that had been scheduled to begin the following week. Her attorney acknowledged that she bought zip ties for Smith on two occasions and had suggested withholding meals until Braxtyn completed chores. The attorney disputed that she could have foreseen the child’s death or that her conduct directly caused it. Prosecutors said Latourette did more than remain silent. They accused her of participating in the punishment and helping conceal signs of abuse, including by making sure the boy wore sunglasses in public to cover bruising on his face.

Murray sentenced Bean and Latourette in late June. Each woman received a 25-year sentence with all but 10 years suspended, according to local reports, meaning each was ordered to serve a decade in prison. During the proceeding, the judge emphasized that Braxtyn had suffered starvation, dehydration, isolation, restraint and physical violence inside a home where the adults were responsible for his care. “The abuse that this child endured was horrendous,” Murray said. Their sentences resolved the manslaughter cases but did not end the court process against Smith.

The case also raised questions about how Braxtyn remained beyond the regular view of teachers, school nurses and other adults who might have noticed changes in his health. Prosecutors said the abuse went undetected for about two years in part because he was educated at home by Bean and Latourette. Authorities have not said that homeschooling alone caused the failure to discover the abuse, but they said his absence from a school setting reduced contact with adults outside the household. The available court accounts do not establish whether any agency received earlier reports that could have prompted an intervention.

Police arrested Smith, Bean and Latourette after Braxtyn’s death and initially charged all three with murder. The later pleas reflected different levels of criminal responsibility accepted by the defendants and prosecutors. Maine State Police lists Braxtyn among the state’s 2024 homicide victims and identifies the three family members as those arrested in the case. The plea agreements spared the state from conducting multiple trials and calling witnesses to recount the child’s treatment, but they also left some evidence outside the public record because the planned trials did not occur.

The court has not announced Smith’s final prison term, and no sentencing order had been entered as of July 13. His expected September hearing will be the last major scheduled proceeding involving the three adults prosecuted in Braxtyn’s death.

Author note: Last updated July 13, 2026.