Cooperstown News Bureau

COOPERSTOWN - After deliberating just 21/2 hours Wednesday, an Otsego County Court jury found Andrew F. Sabedra, 44, innocent of assaulting young Jacob Negroni on Jan. 27, 1999.

Sabedra, a big man who works as a swing manager at Oneonta's Southside McDonald's Restaurant, breathed a deep sigh as jury foreman Randolf Wicks of Otego read the verdict: Innocent of first-degree assault and innocent of reckless assault of a child by a child-care provider.

Had he been convicted of first-degree assault, Sabedra would have faced a maximum prison term of 25 years. Instead, he walked out of court a free man, having been acquitted of two assault charges last December and the two others on Wednesday.

He slipped quickly from the courtroom to be with his longtime girlfriend, Sue Sutherland, and their daughter at their home on state Route 205 in Oneonta, according to his attorney, William Schebaum of Oneonta.

Schebaum said he felt the jury acquitted Sabedra "because he's innocent. That's what I personally believe. The last time, a jury took 21/2 days to reach a verdict, and this time 21/2 hours, but the result is the same, because he didn't do it."

A key defense witness may have been Mary Jane Clapper, Schebaum said. On Tuesday, Clapper testified that she saw James Amatuccio, the boyfriend of Jacob's mother, drop the toddler and then fall on him on or about Jan. 26, 1999.

When Jacob's mother, Joy Negroni, testified Wednesday morning, Schebaum asked her how tall and heavy Amatuccio was.

"Six-foot, one-and-a-half-inches tall, and 300 pounds," she said.

After the verdict was announced, Sabedra's sister, Patricia Hughes, said the last 18 months have been very trying for the family. "It's been a nightmare and we're glad it's over," she said, "but we knew he was innocent all along."

His brother-in-law, Bob Strom, deemed it a "travesty" that Sabedra had endured two trials for a crime he didn't commit.

As he left the courtroom, Otsego County District Attorney William "Jack" Gibbons said: "The jury has spoken. I believe we put in the best case we could, and Jacob has had his day in court."

Negroni was crying as she left the courtroom. Sabedra, she said, had "lied in court and got away with it. Some day he'll have to face God's judgment, and there's no escape from that."

Negroni said her Christian faith has sustained her in the last 18 months and she and her family will try to move on from here.

"What else can we do?" she said.

Amatuccio said he and Negroni are dedicated to letting people know more about shaken baby syndrome, which has left Jacob with permanent brain injuries.

Jurors received the case at about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, a day in which they listened to the testimony of two rebuttal witnesses, summations by the attorneys and a charge from Otsego County Judge Michael Coccoma.

In his summation, Schebaum said Sabedra was innocent and that his statement to state police was coerced and largely untrue. He also said Sabedra was not an employee of Sutherland's Teddy Bear Daycare Center, and thus, the second felony charge did not apply.

Gibbons reasoned that because Sabedra at times monitored the children at Sutherland's home-based day-care service and was cleared by the state Social Services Department to live in the home, he essentially was an employee.

In his summation, Gibbons urged jurors to convict Sabedra, citing his signed statement to state police in which he said he shook and dropped the crying toddler while Sutherland was in the shower on the morning of Jan. 27.

Gibbons also reviewed testimony by Dr. Raymond Walsh of Albany Medical Center, who concluded that Jacob was the victim of shaken baby syndrome — violent shaking that sheared blood vessels in his brain, leaving him permanently impaired.

Juror Ondria Northrup of Unadilla said she felt Sabedra's guilt was not proven.

"It wasn't what we heard that was the problem as much as what we didn't hear," she said. "I think there was so much emphasis on the statement and the medical evidence that other areas were neglected."

Northrup said the case "hit close to home" for her and was difficult to hear because it involved serious injuries sustained by a young child.

Another juror, Alfred Lubell, an economics professor at the State University College at Oneonta, said he felt the case was well tried, and that all involved — Coccoma, Gibbons, Schebaum and his fellow jurors — had renewed his faith in the nation's legal system.

A third juror, who asked that his name not be used, said the group felt that the case was not prosecuted vigorously enough.

"We knew that something happened, but nothing was proven beyond a reasonable doubt," he said. He added that the jury closely followed Coccoma's charge in arriving at the verdict.

In that charge, Coccoma told jurors that Sabedra's statement to police could be accepted as evidence only if they were convinced it had been given freely. Only then could they consider whether it was true, Coccoma said.