AUGUSTA — The man charged with seriously injuring 2-year-old twin girls in an attack at their Oakland home two years ago will serve an initial eight years in prison.
David Michael Devine had an additional two years of his sentence suspended and was ordered to serve two years of probation.
Devine, 27, was sentenced Thursday during a hearing at the Capital Judicial Center.
The children’s mother was in the courtroom, but the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh, said she did not want to speak in court.
Devine’s attorney Pamela Ames said Devine was pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated assault – each naming one of the children as a victim – under the Alford doctrine. That is a plea indicating that while he does not admit the acts, he believes a jury or judge hearing testimony in the case would likely find him guilty.
“I understand from talking with the attorneys that you don’t agree with all the facts,” Justice Michaela Murphy told him. She also said she rejected an initial joint sentencing recommendation that would have placed Devine behind bars for an initial five-year period. Murphy said the facts in the case indicated the sentence should be closer to the 10-year maximum permitted under the law and required a longer period of incarceration up front.
Devine has been jailed since his arrest about two weeks after the May 11, 2014, attacks.
In recounting the facts of the case, Cavanaugh said Devine was living with the children’s mother, who was expecting his child. Cavanaugh said Devine was the only adult home with the twins and their older brother when their mother returned from work to find the girls lethargic and having difficulty breathing. She called emergency responders.
“Mr. Devine was the only adult at the house at the time of injuries,” Cavanaugh said. “He was the only one capable of it.”
The girls were taken by ambulance first to Inland Hospital in Waterville and then sent by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
When Devine was questioned by investigators, Cavanaugh said, “He said the children’s 4-year-old brother hit them with a Wiffle bat.”
However, Cavanaugh said medical experts said the injuries were too serious for that explanation.
The children’s mother too doubted that story. In an interview in late May 2014, Emily Walker, now Emily Davis, said, “It’s probably going to be a mystery that will always bother me for the rest of my life, unfortunately. No one’s going to get exactly what happened.”
Both toddlers had head injuries and bruises and one had a broken femur and the other a broken arm and a spiral fracture of her elbow.
Cavanaugh said they had undergone extensive rehabilitation.
Ames said the defense had searched for a medical expert who would be able to refute the evidence at trial, but was unable to locate someone to do that.
In an affidavit filed in court by Oakland police, investigators reported finding a small bloody handprint on the inside of a closet wall, more blood on a dresser in the girls’ room, “blood splatter marks on the wall in the hallway” and a blood smear near a window in the home where Devine and the children’s mother were living.
Devine said little in the courtroom except to tell the judge he believed the plea was in his best interest, that he did not want to go to trial, and that he had no prior felony conviction.
Shortly after Devine’s arrest, his mother, Susan Wood, said she did not believe her son had harmed the girls.
“My son didn’t hurt those little girls,” Wood said after his initial court hearing. “My son loves those little girls.”
Conditions of probation prohibit Devine from having contact with the girls and their brother and permit incidental contact with their mother only for purposes of court proceedings involving their biological child.
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