EAST MACHIAS – The circumstances surrounding the death of a 2-year-old boy who was in the care of his stepfather before he died in early March were made public for the first time last week by a Washington County Superior Court judge.

William Bryson, 22, of East Machias is suspected of acting negligently in the death of his stepson, Damon Nason. A Washington County grand jury indicted Bryson on March 21 and charged him with manslaughter.

Damon Nason was the son of Tawnya Bryson. Two other children were in the Bryson home at the time of Damon’s death, Jayden Bryson, 1, who is William and Tawnya Bryson’s son, and Lexis Nason, 4.

Bryson was arrested March 7 and first appeared in court March 10. Shortly after the incident, court documents associated with the case were sealed, but this week Justice Kevin Cuddy unsealed the affidavit after a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Bangor Daily News.

The affidavit provides details of what happened on Saturday, March 1, the day Damon was taken to Down East Community Hospital in Machias and then to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he died the next day.

According to the affidavit, Tawnya Bryson told police she was at work that afternoon when she received a text message from her husband that said, “Call me now.” She said she was unsure of the time but believed the message came in around 1:30 p.m.

“Tawnya told me that William told her on the phone that he didn’t know if Damon stood up and slipped or passed out in the tub,” Detective Micah Perkins of the Maine State Police said in the affidavit.

When police later questioned William Bryson, he told them that while Damon was taking a bath, he stepped out of the room, then heard a loud bang. Bryson said the bruising hospital officials later found on Damon’s head occurred when he had “smacked” the child to try to wake him up.

Bryson said he called his parents and then dressed the 2-year-old.

Firefighter Mike Nicholas of the Cutler Navy Fire Station said that when he arrived Damon was not breathing and he could not find a pulse.

“Firefighter Nicholas told me that despite being told that the child had been in the bathtub, the child did not appear to be wet,” Perkins said in the court document.

Damon was taken to Down East Community Hospital that afternoon. Perkins said in the affidavit that he was told around 3:45 p.m. that Damon was dead, but later learned the child had been resuscitated at the hospital and was in critical condition. The child was on a ventilator and not breathing on his own. DECH was making preparation to transfer the youngster to EMMC.

DECH Nursing Supervisor Donna Kelley said family members told her William Bryson was giving the child a bath when he stepped away from the bathroom and then heard a thud.

“Donna told me that she was concerned because when the child was brought in he was wearing socks, pants, a diaper, a shirt and was dry,” the detective said in the affidavit.

Kelley showed police bruise marks on Damon’s chin, head, throat and buttocks. There was also a red mark just to the right of Damon’s left eye.

The child was taken to EMMC that day. The next day, March 2, Damon was removed from life support.

His body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta where Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Margaret Greenwald conducted an autopsy. She informed police that the case should be treated as a homicide.

On March 2, Perkins of the state police went to the Regional Communication Center in Machias and listened to a 911 tape from family member Jessica Moore, who had made the emergency call on Saturday. Moore told police she tried to get Tawnya Bryson to call 911, but Bryson said that William Bryson’s parents planned to take the youngster to the hospital.

“Jessica stated that she was frantic and felt that 911 should be called and tried to get the [home] address from Tawnya and stated that it was a little bit of a struggle to get Tawnya’s address out of her,” the affidavit said. “Tawnya being in shock and her [Jessica] being frustrated, it took a good 20 minutes or so to get Tawnya’s address from her and then she [Jessica] called 911.”

In a March 2 interview, William Bryson told police that about 25 minutes elapsed between when he sent his wife a text message and when the first person arrived at the house.

“Bryson offers no real explanation for the delay in contacting medical assistance,” the affidavit said. “He said he felt his parents could respond faster than waiting for an ambulance.”

William Bryson told police that Damon got the bruises on his bottom from the floor in the house. “[He] told me the floors are hard and they [the children] push each other down,” Perkins said in the affidavit.

Bryson also said the bruises on Damon’s forehead happened after he fell in the bathtub.

“When he left my house, he didn’t have one single bruise on his forehead, none,” the affidavit quoted Bryson as saying.

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