Teen on Trial for Killing Her New Born Baby
LEBANON, Ohio – The mean solar day earlier her baby died, she went to a Cincinnati Reds game with her swain and parents. They didn't know she was significant.
Brooke "Skylar" Richardson, then 18, was having painful cramps. She didn't know that might have been the beginning of labor.
The adjacent day, several hours later on she buried her child in the backyard, Richardson went to the gym and began documenting her weight loss in pictures. She sent a text to her mom:
"I'k literally speechless with how happy I am," Richardson said. "My belly is dorsum omg I am never e'er ever evertrrr letting it grt like this again your about to encounter me look freaking amend than before omg."
Richardson, at present twenty, is charged with aggravated murder and involuntary manslaughter. The former Carlisle Loftier School cheerleader is accused of deliberately killing her newborn baby in 2017 a few days afterward prom and burying it in her parent's backyard. Shortly afterwards that, Richardson graduated high school.
She was arrested a few months afterward.
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Her trial began this week, and jurors must decide if Richardson had a stillborn baby or information technology was something more sinister. If convicted, she could spend the residue of her life in prison.
Less than 24 hours after prosecutors say she killed her baby, Richardson texted her mom once again:
"I'm literally then excited for dinner to wear something cute yayy my belly is back at present I am takin this opportunity to make it amazing."
She likewise texted her fellow:
"Concluding night was similar the worst e'er. But I feel so much better this morning. I'1000 happy."
Warren County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Knippen chosen it the perfect crime.
Richardson gave birth in the middle of the night and didn't tell anyone – not even her blood brother sleeping beyond the hall. Knippen said Richardson never intended to raise her child.
Her family unit says Richardson named her infant Annabelle and thinks about her often.
Later finding out she was pregnant, Richardson searched "how do I get rid of a baby" on the internet. Her mother had told Richardson her life would exist over if she became pregnant, the prosecutor said.
"She was adamant to keep her secret," Knippen said in court on Wed. "When she could muffle her girl no longer, she took her girl's life."
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For 2 months, Richardson went back to living her picture-perfect life, the prosecutor said. All while her babe decomposed in the backyard.
Annabelle deserved improve.
That's what police told Richardson as she sat in a police interrogation room, her hand held past a detective. Her family had already called police and asked if the kid's remains could be returned to them.
They wanted a proper burial. But before they could do that, police told Richardson, they needed the truth.
At her Carlisle home in 2017, investigators searched for her child'south bones, removing weeds and brushing the footing to reveal more than skeletal remains. Authorities placed dozens of basic, including several pieces of the skull, on peak of a small-scale torso bag.
An affections statue bearing the words "forever in our hearts" marks the spot where investigators dug upward the kid's remains.
One investigator testified the remains smelled. Another said the basic were so small information technology was hard to tell if they were collecting rock or bone. The coroner said authorities institute some hair and very small fingernails, only no organs or annihilation else identifiable.
Pictures of the bones were displayed on a television screen in court on Midweek afternoon. The photos were part of testimony which began Wednesday morning with the male parent of Richardson'south baby, who said she bankrupt upwardly with him afterward a month of dating and never told him she was pregnant.
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Richardson, xx, looked direct ahead and didn't appear to look at the photos. The day before, she trembled when the approximate sabbatum down before jury pick.
Richardson's life was far from perfect, her attorneys said, even before all of this. They said much of what prosecutors said are "half-truths."
Defence force Attorney Charlie Rittgers said the texts displayed in court were taken out of context. He said Richardson often texted like that.
She's battled an eating disorder since she was 12, regularly seeing a psychologist and nutritionist because of it. Rittgers showed pictures to the jury of Richardson where she looked rail-sparse and pictures where she looked chubby. He said her weight fluctuated up to forty pounds at a fourth dimension.
After Richardson lost her baby, her attorney said she cradled the kid for hours while haemorrhage on the ground in the bathroom. She cached Annabelle in the backyard and dragged a 25-pound flower pot to marking the grave.
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Richardson could see the pot from her bedroom window.
Her chaser said she began focusing on her fitness and how her body looked because it was the only thing she could control.
"She put a smile on for the exterior world and acted similar she was happy," Rittgers told the jury.
The attorney said Richardson planned on telling her family unit she was pregnant, but she never had a hazard. Rittgers said her doctor told her she would deliver a baby within eight to 10 weeks.
She thought she had time to go to prom and graduate high schoolhouse before she figured out how to tell her mom, who she knew would not take the news well.
She gave nascence xi days subsequently.
Richardson's trial is expected to last two weeks. Testimony will go on Thursday.
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Contributing: Sonia Chopra
Follow Keith BieryGolick on Twitter: @KBieryGolick
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/05/murder-trial-cheerleader-accused-burying-newborn-backyard/2218328001/
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