Stepfather Sentenced to Eight Years in Boy's Death

Robert McCoy, 37, was sentenced to eight years in prison and six years of probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of his four-year-old stepson, Jasper Smith. Prosecutors said Jasper found a loaded handgun in a zipped bag at the family’s Lewiston apartment and accidentally shot himself; several other children were in the home. McCoy is barred from possessing firearms and from contact with children younger than six while on probation, and may be subject to unannounced searches. Relatives say they repeatedly alerted Maine child-welfare officials to concerns about the home, citing about 17 reports and seven investigations before Jasper’s death; those claims have not been independently verified in the reporting, and the case has prompted calls for an accounting of how the reports were handled.