NORWICH – A Cincinnatus man who has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a 16-month-old boy appeared in Chenango County Court Friday.

Jason Sherman, 24, Piety Hill, Cincinnatus, was formally charged with two counts of 1st degree manslaughter (a Class B felony) and 2nd degree assault (a Class D felony). Sherman pleaded not guilty to all counts. Police allege Sherman caused the death of a 16-month-old child, Marshal Lee Barber Jr.

On Nov. 10, 2006 at about 7 a.m., Sheriff’s deputies responded to 109 Loomis Lane in the Town of Pitcher, where Sherman was the live-in boyfriend of the child’s mother, to investigate the death an infant. Barber was taken to Chenango Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by emergency room doctors.

“There was suspicion from the start. The child showed signs of abuse and the wound that ultimately ended his life was a mystery and could not be explained, so flags went up,” said Sheriff Thomas Loughren. The autopsy eventually concluded the official cause of death was “blunt head trauma and asphyxiation.” The death was ruled a homicide.