A Biddeford man has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a 5-week-old boy in June 2024.
After an investigation that lasted over a year, Christopher Knapp, 36, was indicted by a York County grand jury on Tuesday and subsequently arrested, Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said in a statement Friday.
Knapp was taken to the York County Jail, where he was being held on $175,000 cash bail, Moss said. He pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Thursday.
Biddeford police and fire department personnel discovered the baby boy unresponsive at 37 Emery St. on June 15, 2024, police said last summer. The infant was taken first to Maine Medical Center Biddeford (formerly Southern Maine Health Care), then to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he died on June 20, 2024.
An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta determined that the baby’s manner of death was a homicide. His cause of death has not been released.
A conviction on a manslaughter charge, a Class A crime, carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
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