[ad_1]
A young mother from Ohio who, according to prosecutors, killed and buried her unwanted newborn in her garden was acquitted by jurors on Thursday.
The Warren County Jury deliberated for four hours before acquitting Brooke Skylar Richardson, 20, of aggravated murder, manslaughter and endangering the endangerment of a man. child.
She was found guilty of bodily harm.
Richardson started to cry while the verdicts were read.
Judge Donald Oda II of Warren County scheduled the sentence on Friday for eleven o'clock in the morning for abuse of office. It is punishable by imprisonment for up to one year in prison, but as a repeat offender, it could be probationed.
Prosecutors said the high school cheerleader wanted to keep her "perfect life". They said that she had hidden her unwanted pregnancy and had her baby buried in her family's garden in May 2017, a few days after her prom.
Her defense stated that the baby she called "Annabelle" was stillborn and that the teenager was sad and scared.
The remains were discovered in July 2017 in Carlisle, a village about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.
Richardson was facing life imprisonment if she had been sentenced.
A medical examiner testified on behalf of the prosecution that she had concluded that the baby had died as a result of "homicidal violence". Prosecutors said Richardson had searched the Internet "how to get rid of a baby". They played a video for the jury of an interview with the police in which Richardson said the baby could have moved and made noise.
Cincinnati psychologist Stuart Bassman said "Skylar was manipulated" to make false statements during interrogations. He described Richardson as a vulnerable and immature person whose dependent personality disorder makes him want to please authority figures, even to the point of making false incriminating statements.
Julie Kraft, an Assistant Attorney, suggested that, in addition to the desire to please the authorities, Richardson's desire to please her family and boyfriend, and the fear that she would abandon her, might have to incite him to commit extreme acts.
His lawyers had twice called for the trial to proceed, citing intense publicity that they said was fueled by the prosecution. But Oda II rejected their requests.
The trial has benefited from a daily coverage of Court TV and at least two news magazines from the national television channel have planned reports on this subject.
The case had divided the village of about 5,000 people in his village, with Facebook pages devoted to it and critics trying to record the comings and goings of the Richardson family on social networks.
—
Dan Sewell, associate editor at The Associated Press, contributed to Cincinnati.
[ad_2]
Source link