BARNSTABLE, Mass. — A Barnstable grand jury has indicted a Cape Cod man for manslaughter in connection with the July 2024 death of his mother, the district attorney said Friday.
Thomas Hayes, 23, of Sandwich, is charged with manslaughter and assault and battery on a person 60 or older or disabled causing serious bodily injury, Cape and Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois said in a statement.
Hayes will be arraigned in Barnstable Superior Court at a later date.
In the late hours of July 24, 2024, police and paramedics responded to a 911 call from a home in Sandwich, Galibois said.
When first responders arrived, they found an unconscious 71-year-old woman on the ground in the second-floor bedroom and bleeding from a laceration to her head, Galibois said.
Investigators later learned the injured woman was Hayes’ mother, Galibois said. His office did not release her name on Friday.
Hayes told the 911 operator and police that he had pushed the woman and that she had fallen to the floor, prosecutors said. She was taken by ambulance to Cape Cod Hospital with a head laceration and a broken neck.
She later died at the hospital on July 30, 2024, Galibois said.
At the time of this incident, Thomas Hayes was on probation out of the Barnstable District Court.
He was sentenced to 1 year at the Barnstable House of Correction for violating his probation, Galibois said.
Sandwich Police and the State Police Detectives Unit assigned to Galibois’ office investigated the case.
In a separate case, a Martha’s Vineyard woman was also charged with manslaughter this week after a toddler died on Wednesday, nearly one week after the child she was babysitting was found unresponsive in her SUV.
Prosecutors said the boy and another child were left unattended in the vehicle for hours.
Aimee Cotton, 41, of Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, was arraigned on the manslaughter charge in Edgartown District Court on Thursday, Galibois said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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