NASHUA – Unique Gould’s unborn child will be close to 12 years old by the time she’s a free woman again after she pleaded guilty Friday to killing her first son last year.

Gould, 22, admitted to hitting and killing 2-year-old Devon Gould Parr in April and not calling for help for nearly a day, leading to his death two weeks later in a Boston hospital.

Gould pleaded guilty to manslaughter and second-degree assault and was sentenced to 12-30 years in prison.

Gould, who married since Devon’s death and told a judge she is four months pregnant, apologized at the end of the hearing and said custody of the unborn child will be shared by the child’s father and some of her family members, several of whom were at the hearing at Hillsborough County Superior Court.

“I’d like to say I’m sorry for what I’ve done, and if I could take it back, I would,” Gould said.

Gould gave her name at the start of the hearing as Unique Gould McCarthy, but was
referred to as Ms. Gould throughout.

Devon’s father, Christopher Parr, also spoke at the hearing about his son.

“My son was the biggest and best part of my life, and my heart is broken,” he said. “I still love strong for him, and always will.”

Devon died about two weeks after injuries he sustained on April 25, 2013, at Gould’s hands. Gould told police she spanked the 2-year-old several times, some of the strikes being “very hard,” and that he fell forward and struck his head on a piece of furniture.

On Friday, Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Catherine Devine said Gould would make Devon stand in a corner with his feet apart and hands behind his back as a form of punishment.

“She said she’d just snapped because he wouldn’t stay in the timeout position,” Devine said.

Devine said Devon had massive brain injuries, including a herniated brain stem and a subdural hematoma.

“He had black brain. The right side of his brain had basically died,” Devine said.

Gould told police she “blacked out” when spanking the child. Devine said she ignored her roommates’ and family members’ pleas to call an ambulance until Devon had been slipping in and out of consciousness for about 20 hours.

Gould confessed to police – a confession her defense lawyers later challenged – and demonstrated how hard she hit Devon on a detective’s hand.

Public defenders Anthony Sculimbrene and Suzanne Ketteridge filed motions before the plea agreement was reached to suppress Gould’s statements to police, arguing her low IQ, difficulty processing language and trouble with listening comprehension made it impossible for her to knowingly waive her rights against self-incrimination.

A psychologist found that Gould has an IQ that borders on “mild mental retardation,” along with significant impairments pertaining to verbal and listening comprehension, according to court documents.

Gould also has difficulty regulating her emotions and becomes easily frustrated and overwhelmed, according to the report.

The hearing was originally supposed to be about that motion until a plea deal was struck.

Sculimbrene – who recently represented Melissa Guttierez, another mother who pleaded guilty to killing her young son – said cases such as Gould’s are never easy.

“It’s a tragic case,” he said. “They’re always hard, emotional. They deal with really complex legal issues, really complex medical issues. These are not easy cases.”

Devine said many in the county prosecutors office initially thought the state Office of the Attorney General would charge Gould with second-degree murder. She said given other circumstances, including Gould’s limitations, she’s confident manslaughter was the appropriate charge. She also said Gould pleading guilty and admitting responsibility was a large reason she agreed to the plea deal.

“It’s always better if you can resolve this type of case without a trial, because a trial would have been horrible for everyone involved. Everyone,” Devine said.

Several Nashua police detectives attended the hearing, including Lt. Frank Sullivan, who heads the department’s Special Investigations Division. He said he hopes Gould’s prison term will give Devon’s family some sense of finality.

“The main reason I wanted to be there was to show support for the family. This was a difficult and horrible, tragic case,” Sullivan said. “No disposition or sentence is ever going to bring Devon back, but one can only hope that this sentence will provide some type of closure for the family and loved ones of Devon, and they can take steps to move forward. No sentence, whether it’s life or what have you, can bring Devon back.”

Gould’s trial was scheduled to be held in April. She has been free on $10,000 bail since August after spending several weeks in jail.

Gould married a man named Michael McCarthy while free on bail and is pregnant again, according to the psychologist’s report.

“I can only say that the state was extremely disappointed that her bail was reduced … which enabled her to get out and ultimately get pregnant,” Devine said.

Gould faced 20-40 years in prison on the manslaughter charge. She was also sentenced to up to seven years in prison on each of two second-degree assault charges and a year on an endangering the welfare of a child charge. Those sentences will run at the same time as the 12- to 30-year manslaughter sentence.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached
at 594-6415 or jcote@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Cote on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC).

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