ELLSWORTH – A man charged with violently shaking his infant son more than four years ago has pleaded guilty to charges of assault.

Nicholas W. Taylor, 28, of Winter Harbor was scheduled for a jury trial this week but late last week changed his plea in Hancock County Superior Court.

Taylor will be sentenced at a later date on a charge of Class C assault.

Two counts of aggravated assault, a Class B felony, were dropped as part of the plea agreement between Hancock County District Attorney Michael Povich and Taylor’s attorney, Ferdinand Slater of Ellsworth.

“Of course he’s relieved that he did not have to put the child’s mother and the families through the ordeal of a trial,” Slater said Monday, referring to his client. “As a young and inexperienced father, he has never disputed that he may have caused injury to his son. The issue was whether he intentionally injured his son, which he never did.”

Taylor’s son was born in early August 2002 and hospitalized about a month later with injuries consistent with shaken-baby syndrome, according to Povich.

It took more than two years to file charges because prosecutors had to wait for Maine Department of Human Services issues to be resolved and had to pore through medical records of the baby’s injuries, the district attorney said.

It has taken another two years to prosecute the case.

The boy, who will turn 5 this year, has largely recovered from any injuries.

“Initially, there was some real concern that he had suffered severe head trauma,” Povich said. “He was fortunate that great medical care intervened.”

Taylor’s parental rights have been revoked and the man no longer has visitation rights to his son, according to Povich.

The district attorney said he will recommend a sentence of four years in prison with all but two suspended followed by two years of probation.

“The plea agreement was not a question of us being able to prove the case, we just felt that we didn’t need to hold out for a Class B conviction,” Povich said, referring to the aggravated assault charges, which could have carried a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Slater argued that the state’s recommended sentence was high.

“I have every confidence that the state will reconsider its position in favor of a sentence more commensurate with my client’s conduct,” he said. “Really what this case comes down to is that young parents are allowed to make mistakes, but when that conduct becomes reckless, there are consequences.”