Like many inmates at the Anchorage jail, Shaka Levshakoff says he's innocent.

But he's got the mother of the 2-year-old girl he is accused of beating to death on his side. She says she knows he didn't cause the child's death -- because she did.

Shaunteala Graham's hand-written statement, which she turned over to Alaska State Troopers last month, includes a detailed description of how young Annemarie Nimmo died and has forced troopers to examine a potentially startling twist to the 15-month investigation that landed Levshakoff in jail.

"I know it was my fault," Graham writes. "I loved my daughter with all my heart. I didn't mean to hurt her. I hope that one day God will forgive me."

Graham has not been charged with anything, though she says investigators have interviewed her several times. Troopers and prosecutors say they are taking the confession seriously but have not found any evidence to back it up.

Meanwhile, the case against Levshakoff, jailed since Sept. 24, is moving forward. For the 26-year-old convicted felon, the murder charges are the latest page in an extensive rap sheet and a turbulent past that includes repeated assault charges. Levshakoff's past also includes another case involving a young child who died while in his care.

That 4-year-old case has never been solved, according to Anchorage police.

'RIGHT IN THE WAY'

When Annemarie died on June 24, 2007, the two prime suspects were Levshakoff, the boyfriend baby sitter who has a lengthy criminal record, and Graham, the mother who has no record save for a charge of driving without proof of insurance.

Troopers looking at the case learned Graham was at work when Annemarie stopped breathing, severe bruises covering her head, face and body, according to an affidavit filed in court by troopers investigator Mark Granda.

Levshakoff, on the other hand, was alone with the child in Whittier's Begich Towers, the affidavit says. And in the end, he was the one charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty Oct. 7.

Both Levshakoff and his attorney, David Weber, declined to discuss the case or Graham's confession.

"As a rule, I usually don't talk about pending cases, nor do I speculate about what evidence will or will not show in any given case at any given time," Weber said. "It wouldn't take much in the way of rocket science to figure out what that sort of information might tend to do."

During a recent, tearful interview, Graham said that, because of her boyfriend's past, it is no surprise investigators charged Levshakoff in her daughter's death. But, she insists, they're wrong.

Graham described being hung over and irritable while she was getting ready for work the day Annemarie died. She was frustrated at the child for being "constantly right in the way trying to get hugs and kisses." She says she collided with Annemarie while trying to get ready for work and, at another point, elbowed her. The youngster hit her head on an armrest of the couch, she said.

Annemarie started crying, and Graham held her, said she was sorry, and the girl appeared to be OK, she said. Only when Levshakoff later called her at work did she realize the girl wasn't, she said.

The extensive bruising was the result of previous injuries caused by Graham being too rough while playing with Annemarie and the child "being a regular 2-year-old," Graham said.

"I didn't realize when I hit her that I had hurt her so badly," her statement says. "Shaka Levshakoff is not to blame for my daughter's death. It was a mistake to react the way I did and I will pay for that mistake with every breath I take for the rest of my life."

VIOLENT PAST

Alaska court records reveal Levshakoff as a sometimes volatile man, prone to explosive outbursts that have sometimes landed him in jail and his assault victims, many of them women, in emergency rooms.

There's the time he beat his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and threatened to kill her after she refused to get an abortion. After her teeth cut through her lip, the woman needed seven stitches. He was sentenced to serve 20 days.

And the time his wife, Kaysie Levshakoff, tried to leave for the night after they argued about his alleged infidelity. As she neared the door, a naked and wet Levshakoff ran from the shower and caught her by the hair.

Afraid for her life, Kaysie managed to break free and run outside, court records say. Levshakoff didn't follow. Instead, he started breaking things. Everything. Furniture, the TV, shelves, the microwave, dishes and pictures were destroyed. According to court documents, Levshakoff took the time to dump bleach onto every piece of clothing his wife owned.

Total damage was estimated at about $15,000. Levshakoff was sentenced to serve 80 days.

UNEXPLAINED DEATH

The first time Levshakoff's name surfaced during an investigation into a child's death was Sept. 8, 2004.

That's the day 14-month-old Devonte Joseph, who, like Annemarie, died while Levshakoff was baby-sitting him, said the boy's mother, Valarie Joseph.

Back then, Levshakoff was splitting his time between Kaysie and Joseph, though neither woman knew it, Joseph said. She says she has known Levshakoff since she was 10, but it wasn't until several months before Devonte died that they got serious and moved in together. They never had problems until Devonte died mysteriously in his crib.

That day, after playing hide-and-seek with her son, Joseph left the boy in Levshakoff's care while she went to work. About an hour later, Levshakoff called and said Devonte wasn't breathing.

When she got home, Joseph saw a small bruise on Devonte's head and vomit in his crib, she said. The child died several hours later at the hospital.

"The first thing I thought was that he choked on his vomit," Joseph said. "But they said there was no trace of vomit in his lungs."

CASE SUSPENDED

The case was suspicious because shaken baby syndrome often leaves no external injuries, said Anchorage police Sgt. Cindi Stanton, supervisor of the crimes against children unit.

Levshakoff was treated as a "person of interest" in the child's unexplained death, though he was never charged, she said. In fact, detectives weren't sure there was a crime.

"The situation was suspicious and so all adults at the residence would come under suspicion, probably automatically, and then maybe him specifically because he was the one responsible for the child," Stanton said. "In this case, we couldn't prove that a crime occurred."

Police and the medical examiner were unable to prove physical abuse and concluded Devonte's death was likely a case of sudden infant death syndrome. The case was suspended indefinitely.

But when Annemarie died, interest was renewed. Troopers and Anchorage police "brainstormed" the cases but made little progress on Devonte's case, which remains suspended. It will likely stay that way unless someone confesses, Stanton said. Levshakoff is not the father of either child.

BURDEN OF PROOF

The day Annemarie died, Graham left the girl alone with Levshakoff, her live-in boyfriend, in their Begich Apartments flat in Whittier while she went to work at the harbor.

Levshakoff told investigators Annemarie had previously fallen and that he was putting ice on her swollen eyes when she stopped breathing, according the troopers affidavit. She died at the Whittier clinic after medics struggled unsuccessfully for more than an hour to revive her.

In court documents detailing the case against Levshakoff, investigators claim the girl stopped breathing because of a severe beating he inflicted on her that morning. Most of the child's head and upper body were covered in severe bruises. An autopsy, backed up by an out-of-state expert's second opinion, and several witnesses indicated Annemarie did not have the injuries before that morning, the affidavit says.

Troopers also claim Levshakoff had hit Annemarie before. According to the affidavit, one woman told them Graham had said Levshakoff once spanked the girl so hard her entire rear was black and blue. Another woman told investigators Graham had once said bruising all over Annemarie's head "looked terrible, and (Graham) was worried people were going to think she was 'beating' her child," the affidavit says.

Annemarie's father, Kurt Andrews, now lives in Washington, but he saw what happened to his child in photos troopers showed him when he flew in for a memorial service, he said.

"It was probably the worst thing I've ever seen in my life," Andrews said. "If you look at the pictures, there's no doubt in your mind as to what had happened."

When Andrews confronted Graham and her family, they insisted Levshakoff was not responsible, he said. They didn't tell him why they were so certain.

GUILTY CONSCIENCE

Now Graham says it's because her actions, not her boyfriend's, are responsible for the death of her child. She didn't know about Levshakoff's history when her child died, and she doesn't know what to make of Devonte's death. But it doesn't change what happened to Annemarie, she said.

Levshakoff only spanked Annemarie one time, and Graham told him not to do it again, she said. Despite his criminal record, Levshakoff, the father of four children, had never hit Graham and was never violent toward kids, she said.

The charging documents troopers filed against Levshakoff appear to dispute that last assertion, but troopers will say little about their investigation or about Graham's statement claiming responsibility in the death.

"We are very much aware of her statement -- I guess her confession," troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. "For anybody to be prosecuted for a crime in the state of Alaska, there has to be collaborating evidence. We can't prosecute someone on a confession without supporting evidence."

The charges against Levshakoff do not describe any physical evidence specifically pinning the crime to him. They do say, however, that Annemarie suffered four head injuries and numerous blows to the body.

Prosecutors are moving forward with their case against Levshakoff and are expecting the confession to come up at trial, said assistant district attorney John Skidmore. Then it will be up to a jury to decide.

"It is being factored into the investigation," Skidmore said. "He is already indicted, so at this point it hasn't affected the indictment. We'll have to see how the court and the jury view things as we go along, but we're still confident in our case."

Graham insists she is not trying to protect Levshakoff or thwart the case against her boyfriend. A guilty conscience spurred by troopers filing charges against Levshakoff prompted her to come forward with her statement when she did, she said.

"I don't know what exactly I'm looking for, besides I don't want him go to jail for the rest of his life for something he didn't do," Graham said. "It just seems like they're building a case to put Shaka away for the rest of his life without looking at anything else."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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