A Piscataquis County man was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison in the death of his 1-month-old son.
Reginald Melvin had pleaded guilty to domestic violence-manslaughter rather than undergo a trial on murder charges. A Superior Court judge sentenced him on Wednesday to 25 years with five years suspended followed by six years of probation. The Maine Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, declined further comment on the sentencing on Wednesday.
Melvin was arrested in August 2021 after his infant son, Sylus Melvin, died from what the medical examiner said was blunt force trauma to multiple parts of his body. Sylus had multiple bone fractures, internal organ injuries as well as hemorrhages on his head and abdomen. The child’s death was one of four that occurred over a several-week period in the summer of 2021, prompting renewed scrutiny and criticism of Maine’s child welfare and protection programs.
A memo released Wednesday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services shows that child welfare workers had regular engagement with Reginald Melvin and Sylus's mother because of safety concerns surrounding an older child. The memo said both parents struggled with substance use disorder and that medical professionals as well as treatment providers reported multiple missed appointments. Reginald Melvin also had been prohibited from having unsupervised contact with the older child at one point because of his history of domestic violence and was jailed for a time for violating a protection from abuse order.
The memo also shows that DHHS workers knew Reginald Melvin was once again living with the mother at the time of Sylus Melvin's death. DHHS launched an investigation but apparently took no action because Reginald Melvin’s medication assisted treatment providers “reported no concerns” and that both Sylus’ primary care providers and public health nurses reported “no concerns” with the health of the baby. That DHHS investigation was still open on August 29, 2021, when Maine State Police reported Sylus Melvin’s death.
State lawmakers are investigating DHHS' handling of this case and the three other child deaths that occurred during the summer of 2021.
