The Imschweiler family drove down from Pennsylvania to Corolla in the Outer Banks for a family vacation in the summer 2018.
Thomas Imschweiler, his wife Laura, and their 4-month old son Franklin were staying in a rented home with several other family members. Late one night after a day on the beach, Thomas said his son was being fussy and he went to tend to him.
He left Franklin on the couch while he went to go fix a bottle in the kitchen, he says. When he returned, he says Franklin was face down on the couch, not breathing. He says he woke up his wife in a panic, telling her something was wrong with their son and began CPR.
Franklin was airlifted to CHKD in Norfolk, but died five days later at the hospital. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death as homicide from abusive head trauma, also known as Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Thomas was blamed for his son's death and took a plea deal. He's currently serving time in a North Carolina prison, but he claims he didn't kill his son, and his family is fighting for his innocence after they say he was wrongly accused.
Laura Imschweiler recalled the horrible events of the night.
“I lost it. I didn't know what was going on. I see my son is lifeless,” she said, “I couldn't comprehend what was happening and I just fell apart.”
The doctors at the hospital told law enforcement Franklin had bleeding on the outside of his brain, bleeding on the right eye, and other injuries. The father was arrested for felony child abuse.
The family believes Franklin’s death was misdiagnosed.
The News 3 Investigative Team spoke to Thomas Imschweiler from the Sanford Correctional Center in North Carolina.
Thomas Imschweiler said he absolutely did not hurt Franklin in any way.
His wife and supporters created a Change.org campaign that now has about 24,700 signatures.
“It just makes me sick and blows my mind that you can put an innocent person into prison,” said Thomas.
His lawyer Rich Lomurro explained what he said happened that awful night.
“Tom brought Franklin out onto this couch and went to make him a bottle. When he went to make him a bottle, Franklin turned his head into this pillow and began to suffocate,” said Lomurro.
The family said Franklin suffered a severe case of hand, foot and mouth disease, a contagious viral infection common in young children, just before they left for vacation.
They said the doctor cleared them to take the trip, but Franklin was not acting like himself.
They said they got a second autopsy done by their own doctors which determined that Franklin died as a result of suffocation followed by cardiac arrest due to falling face down in the couch for several minutes.
“You have two possible ways that these injuries could come," said Lomurro. "One of them is through what's called abusive head trauma, formally known as Shaken Baby Syndrome, and the other one is an accidental suffocation.”
He said his client did not kill his child and the medical examiners and investigators got it wrong.
“There's nothing ever, from day one, to point to a history of abuse, that night, the four months of Franklin's life and the 34 years of Tom's life to indicate that he was ever capable of abusing a child,” said Lomurro.
Lomurro said he entered an Alford plea for voluntary manslaughter which allows a defendant to claim innocence without having to go to trial.
Lomurro said the only reason he took the plea deal was because he was concerned if he were to lose the case, he'd be sent to prison for life.
“Tom was facing life without parole for the charges in this case," said Lomurro. "He is a young man and he's looking at the rest of his life in jail without parole. The state offered him a plea agreement to five years.”
Thomas Imschweiler said he doesn’t regret taking the deal but does not feel like he was treated fairly. He and his wife said the authorities involved in the case seem to have their minds made up about what happened.
“They put you between a rock and a hard place and it’s just what I had to do,” said Thomas Imschweiler. “I could not have forgiven myself if we went to trial and I lost."
Lomurro said he accepted the plea because it was in his best interest but he is maintaining his innocence.
“Now he's in jail, maintaining his innocence so with his lawyer, so is his wife and so are the doctors who worked on his case, and that's why it's so important for us to keep fighting,” said Lomurro.
News 3 sent all the documentation available to us to Dr. William McClain, a forensic pathologist not connected to the case for his opinion.
“The truth of the matter is, in this case, I would not be able to say either one of those," said McClain. "I am not convinced that this is a homicide and I'm not convinced that it is not a homicide."
It's an extremely complex case, he said.
“If this was my case and I had to sign Franklin's death certificate," said McClain. "I'd probably called this an undetermined cause of death and undetermined manner of death and I would have lost a lot of sleep about it.”
Laura Imschweiler continues to fight for her husband.
“I want my husband to come home. I want this wrong to be righted but I also want to expose the fallacies that occur when a shaken baby is just accused at families,” she said.
We reached out to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner about this case. They issued the following statement:
The cause of death for Franklin Thomas Imschweiler is abusive head trauma and the manner of death is homicide. Our office is always willing to review new information as it pertains to cases that our office conducted a death investigation. However, we ask that any new information be shared with the investigating law enforcement agency and the law enforcement agency will share any pertinent information with our office to review. This ensures that law enforcement is aware of all information that is being shared with our office as it could possibly impact and/or change their investigation. Once the new information is shared with our office, we will review it to see if the manner and/or cause of death needs to be changed. If any changes are made, we will provide copies of new reports to all law enforcement officials, including Commonwealth/District Attorneys. Therefore, I am recommending that the family reach out to the Currituck County, NC Sheriff's Office to provide them with any new information that they have pertaining to the referenced case.
The Currituck County Sheriff’s Office told News 3 they had a solid case against Thomas Imschweiler and they were ready to go to trial, but he took a plea deal. They said they had nothing else to say about the case.
The district attorney didn’t respond to our request for comment or an interview.
CHKD sent us the following statement regarding the case:
While medical privacy laws prevent us from commenting on the specifics of Franklin’s care, we can provide the following general statement.
The death of a child is a heartbreaking loss, and we empathize with the deep distress and pain that families experience when a child dies.
CHKD is committed to the health and safety of children and to the highest standards of patient care and medical ethics. Whenever a child is admitted to our hospital with concerning injuries, we are legally obligated to report this to the appropriate authorities and to cooperate with the law enforcement and child protective agencies who conduct investigations to determine whether abuse has occurred.
