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A vigil is held May 20 beside 93 Pierce St. in Lewiston, where 4-year-old Jasper Kyle McCoy died May 17 from a gunshot wound. His stepfather were arrested Wednesday and charged with manslaughter. (Andree Kehn/Staff Photographer)

LEWISTON — The stepfather of 4-year-old Jasper Smith, who died of a gunshot wound to the head inside a Pierce Street apartment in May, was arrested Wednesday on charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

Robert McCoy, 35, was taken into custody about 10:30 a.m. Police say that the bullet that killed Jasper was fired from McCoy’s 9 mm handgun.

McCoy was arrested at his home at 93 Pierce St. and taken to the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn where he was being held on $300,000 bail.

A short time later, police went back to the home and arrested the boy’s mother, Mikayla Smith, 27, on warrants unrelated to the shooting death.

As police led Mikayla Smith handcuffed to a cruiser, at least one neighbor could be heard shouting “Justice for Jasper” from a nearby window.

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By Wednesday afternoon, video of Mikayla Smith’s arrest was circulating on social media, with dozens of people expressing relief that arrests have been made in the case.

A short time after she was arrested, Mikayla Smith was released from jail and was seen returning to her home.

Jasper died May 17 after he was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. The case remains under investigation by Lewiston and Maine State Police.

The couple’s two other children were removed from the home after Lewiston and state police, along with the Department of Health and Human Services, investigated conditions there. The children are being kept in state care after being placed for a time with other family members who live in the area.

The boy’s death riled the community, prompting several vigils and a few online petitions. The arrests Wednesday brought some sense of closure, although there were still frustrations, mainly because the boy’s mother had not been charged in Jasper’s death.

“There’s a little bit of relief,” said Jasper’s father, Andrew Northham, “but at the end of the day, I feel like they both should have been held accountable. It shouldn’t be all just on him.”

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Others in the family felt the same.

Jasper Smith in an undated photo. (Courtesy of Laura Smith)

“I am overwhelmed with relief, in a sense, that there is finally going to be some kind of justice for Jasper,” said Loretta Lynn Leet, a relative of the boy. “It doesn’t take away the pain and the heartache that the family has endured from this tragic situation … but at least there’s some relief knowing that his death was not just another case thrown under the rug.”

Northam described his son as “a happy, go-lucky kid with not a care in the world. He could never be mad at you. You’d never find him with a frown on his face.”

The shooting also raised questions about the DHHS involvement in the case after it was revealed that state child welfare officials had visited the home of Jasper Smith seven times at the behest of family members, neighbors and health care providers.

Until the shooting, they never took action.

In 2021, Maine passed legislation to make failing to secure firearms in proximity to a child a crime. The legislation amended the existing child endangerment law to hold gun owners accountable for unsecured firearms accessed by children.

The same year, a West Bath man was charged with child endangerment after his 2-year-old son allegedly grabbed a loaded handgun off a bedside table and fired a shot that injured his mother and father. The gun’s recoil injured the child.

Because the shooting on Pierce Street resulted in a death, McCoy is also charged with the more serious crime of manslaughter, which can carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

A manslaughter charge is generally filed in a case where a person “recklessly, or with criminal negligence, causes the death of another human being.”

Mark LaFlamme is a Sun Journal reporter and weekly columnist. He's been on the nighttime police beat since 1994, which is just grand because he doesn't like getting out of bed before noon. Mark is the...