Savannah Smith, who has been charged with murder in the 2017 death of a 2-year-old in Bucksport, will seek bail at a court hearing next week.

Smith’s lawyer, Jeff Silverstein, said the hearing is scheduled for Monday at Superior Court in Ellsworth. Murder defendants typically aren’t eligible for bail in Maine, although there is a procedure for seeking it through a hearing before a judge.

Smith, 21, was arrested at a Bucksport motel on April 4, charged with murdering Kloe Hawksley on Oct. 19, 2017. Police said they were called to a home on Central Avenue in Bucksport 18 months ago for a report that a child was unresponsive and found Hawksley’s body at the house.

At the time of the girl’s death, Smith was the partner of Kloe Hawksley’s father, Tyler Hawksley.

Silverstein, Smith’s court-appointed attorney, said he doesn’t have a lot of information on the case and is waiting for state authorities to hand over discovery information. Police have said little about their investigation and the decision to seek an indictment of Smith, but they will have to disclose some of the information that led to that decision at next week’s hearing.

A Hancock County grand jury returned an indictment of Smith a few hours before her arrest.

Silverstein said Smith gave birth to her third child a few days before her arrest. He said the state Department of Health and Human Services took custody of the newborn immediately after the birth. He said Smith’s two older children were already in DHHS custody at the time of Smith’s arrest, but he had no further information about them.

According to Silverstein, there was some “unhappiness” with the course of the police investigation of Kloe Hawksley’s death and it had been reassigned to other detectives and “redone” prior to the arrest. He said he didn’t know the reason for the alleged dissatisfaction with the investigation.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6463 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

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