Braxtyn Smith was homeschooled by relatives who later admitted criminal responsibility for conduct connected to his 2024 death.
BANGOR, Maine — For about two years, 10-year-old Braxtyn Smith lived with worsening injuries, severe food deprivation and repeated restraint while having little regular contact with adults outside the Bangor household where prosecutors said the abuse occurred.
His isolation became a central piece of the explanation offered in court for why the mistreatment was not discovered before his death. Braxtyn was homeschooled by his mother, Jem Bean, and grandmother, Mistie Latourette, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said. He therefore did not appear each weekday before teachers, school nurses, cafeteria workers or other staff who might have noticed his declining weight, bruises or changes in behavior. The case ended with guilty pleas from all three adults charged in connection with his death, but it left unresolved questions about whether any outside institution had a meaningful opportunity to intervene sooner.
Braxtyn’s father, Joshua Smith, 35, pleaded guilty June 11 to depraved-indifference murder. Bean and Latourette pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were later sentenced to 25 years with all but 10 years suspended, requiring each to serve a decade in prison. Smith is expected to be sentenced in September. Murder carries at least 25 years in prison under Maine law, and the court could order him imprisoned for life.
The prosecution did not contend that home education itself proved abuse or criminal conduct. Instead, Robbin described it as one condition that reduced Braxtyn’s visibility during the period when the adults’ treatment of him became increasingly severe. The available public record does not establish whether school enrollment would have prevented his death. It also does not show that a teacher or agency had received verified information describing the full extent of his condition before he was taken to the hospital.
What the court record does show is that the adults controlled most areas of the boy’s daily life. Prosecutors said they controlled his access to food, sleeping arrangements, movement and education. Meals were withheld as punishment. Braxtyn ate dog food and searched through garbage for something to eat, according to accounts gathered by investigators. Smith took away his bedroom, and the child was forced to sleep in a bathroom or common area with only a blanket.
Restraint was also part of that environment. Prosecutors said the adults used plastic zip ties to secure Braxtyn’s hands behind his back and fasten his ankles or feet to a chair, a tote or another object. At times, he was restrained while he slept. Latourette’s attorney acknowledged that she bought zip ties for Smith twice. Bean told investigators that the parents had used zip ties during what she described as the boy’s tantrums. Messages between the adults included discussions of how he had been secured.
The treatment remained inside the family until the medical emergency that ended Braxtyn’s life. Bean and Latourette brought him to a Bangor hospital on Feb. 18, 2024. Staff members reported that he was not breathing and had no pulse. He weighed 48 pounds and had bruises across his body. Emergency workers restored some circulation and arranged a transfer to another hospital, but he died that night.
The medical findings revealed injuries that could not be explained by a single recent incident. Authorities said Braxtyn had blunt-force injuries and evidence of trauma from different periods. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Prosecutors also described signs of prolonged malnutrition and neglect. A hospital worker told a detective that the material the boy vomited resembled and smelled like dry pet food, an observation that later matched accounts that he ate animal food when meals were withheld.
Bean initially told police that Braxtyn sometimes injured himself during tantrums by throwing his body to the ground. Investigators compared that explanation with his medical condition, witness accounts and communications recovered from the adults’ phones. The resulting evidence described an organized pattern of punishment rather than unexplained childhood injuries. Prosecutors said Smith repeatedly struck the boy, while Bean and Latourette participated in or enabled other parts of his treatment.
The messages gave investigators a view into conduct that outsiders had not witnessed. Smith threatened to strike and kill his son in texts described during court proceedings. In one message, he said the child was tired and that he intended to slap him, adding that it “should be fun.” Another exchange concerned whether Bean had properly tied the boy. She responded by describing his ankles being secured to a tote and his hands placed behind his back.
Prosecutors also accused Latourette of helping prevent outside detection. They said she made sure Braxtyn wore sunglasses in public so bruising on his face would not be visible. Her attorney disputed that she caused the child’s death and argued that her actions did not make a fatal outcome reasonably foreseeable. Still, the allegation that bruises were concealed strengthened the state’s position that the adults understood an outsider might recognize evidence of abuse.
Police arrested Smith, Bean and Latourette after Braxtyn died. All three initially faced murder charges and pleaded not guilty. The cases moved through the court system for more than two years, creating the prospect of trials at which prosecutors would present medical evidence, family messages and testimony about conditions in the home. Each defendant eventually chose to avoid trial through a guilty plea.
Bean pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2026. Her agreement reduced the charge she faced and positioned her as a possible witness against the other defendants. Smith continued toward trial until June. Early that month, he attempted to change his plea to not criminally responsible because of insanity. He then returned to Penobscot County Superior Court and pleaded guilty to murder days before jury selection.
At Smith’s plea hearing, Robbin spent nearly 18 minutes outlining what the state would have sought to prove. She described the restraints, the denial of food, the sleeping conditions, the physical attacks and the messages. Smith said some texts had been taken out of context and described parts of them as sarcasm. He said he had not intended to kill Braxtyn. When Justice Ann Murray asked whether he was pleading guilty because he was guilty, however, Smith answered yes.
Latourette pleaded guilty to manslaughter the following day, canceling a bench trial that had been scheduled for the next week. Her lawyer said she recognized that some of her choices should have been different but maintained that buying zip ties or recommending withheld meals did not mean she anticipated a death. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence that would require her to serve 10 years, while allowing her defense to seek a shorter term.
Murray sentenced Bean and Latourette in late June and required both to serve 10 years. During the hearing, the judge described starvation, dehydration, isolation, restraint and beatings inflicted by people who were responsible for the child’s care. “The abuse that this child endured was horrendous,” Murray said. The sentences held the women criminally responsible for their roles but treated their conduct differently from Smith’s admitted murder.
The guilty pleas resolved whether the adults would be convicted, but they did not produce a public trial examining every potential point of outside contact. The reports reviewed for this article do not say whether Braxtyn received routine medical care during the two years before his death, whether authorities had previously visited the home or whether anyone outside the household reported suspected abuse. Those questions should not be answered through speculation. The verified record establishes only that prosecutors linked the lack of detection partly to his homeschooling and isolation.
Bean and Latourette have begun serving their prison terms. No public proceeding has yet been announced to examine the broader oversight issues raised by the case. Smith remains jailed while the court prepares for his sentencing. His hearing may include arguments about the duration and severity of the abuse, his criminal responsibility and the lasting consequences of Braxtyn’s death.
Author note: Last updated July 13, 2026.