Former Cheerleader Brooke Skylar Richardson Found Not Guilty of Killing Newborn

[Mockingbird 2,837]

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A jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial of Brooke Skylar Richardson, the Ohio woman accused of killing and burying her newborn daughter.

 

After deliberating for four hours and 25 minutes, the jurors found her not guilty of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

 

She was found guilty of only one charge: gross abuse of a corpse.

 

On Tuesday, a judge threw out a charge of tampering with evidence, saying that the prosecution did not meet its burden of proof on that charge.

 

While awaiting the verdict, Richardson, now 20, was visibly shaking. She was breathing heavily and seemingly on the verge of tears. When the verdict was announced, she burst into tears while her parents cried in the front row. “We love you so much,” her mother said to her. “We love you, baby.”

 

Brooke Richardson was accused of killing and burying her newborn daughter in her backyard in July 2017. Prosecutors allege she did not want to be an 18-year-old single mom. Richardson’s attorneys argued that the baby was stillborn and didn’t meet the legal criteria to be considered a child.

 

Richardson had pleaded not guilty.

 

Prosecutors allege that Richardson did not want to be a single teen mom with college only a few months away. In the weeks after learning of her pregnancy, Richardson didn’t return for an ultrasound, bloodwork, or any other treatment, while also ignoring calls from the doctor and assistants, prosecutors have said.

 

[...]

 

https://people.com/crime/former-cheerleader-brooke-skylar-richardson-found-not-guilty-of-murder-in-death-of-her-newborn/

[wakjak 19,137]

That's some white privilege. 

[Mockingbird 2,837]

33 minutes ago, wakjak said:

That's some white privilege. 

Well, to be fair, Skylar is suffering from anorexia and bulimia.

 

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the the baby was a stillborn and Skylar is telling the truth.

 

The whole case hinged on the prosecutor proving that the baby was not a stillborn, and the prosecutor failed to do so.

 

Obviously, if the baby is a stillborn, Skylar, by law, couldn't have murdered her baby.

[xendrome 5,555]

What does being a "cheerleader" have to do with anything, looks like that was when she was in highschool?

[Mockingbird 2,837]

1 minute ago, xendrome said:

What does being a "cheerleader" have to do with anything, looks like that was when she was in highschool?

The incident happened when she was a cheerleader in high school.

[Zagadka 4,093]

"Cheerleader" is just a useless descriptive term because it makes a better headline.

 

As for the story, legal proceedings suck sometimes. The logic of the process actually makes sense, even if it is distasteful to a lot of people. The privilege here is being able to hire a better lawyer.

[xendrome 5,555]

1 hour ago, Mockingbird said:

The incident happened when she was a cheerleader in high school.

And that matters anymore then any other student?

[Mockingbird 2,837]

45 minutes ago, xendrome said:

And that matters anymore then any other student?

The prosecutor make the case that Skylar had to kill the baby for the family to maintain its external appearances.

 

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a19043190/brooke-skylar-richardson-homicide-trial/

 

Quote

The "murdered" and "charred bones" details came from an August 4 press conference, called by Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell. (The video has since been removed from his professional Facebook page.) Fornshell, who publicly identifies as "extraordinarily pro-life," announced that Skylar had been indicted for five felony charges: aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse.

 

He said he'd decided not to seek the death penalty, but the aggravated murder charge he's seeking could mean life in prison, as well as additional lengthy sentences for the other charges.

 

"Sometime during the night of May 6 to May 7, 2017, she did give birth to a newborn infant and that she caused the death of that infant," Fornshell says in the video. "To be frank with you, I'm not sure that we ever will be able to provide to you the exact medical cause of death, and the reason is because the child was after death burned and subsequently buried." He later adds that, because they couldn't determine a cause of death, he cannot not say with certainty that the baby was not burned alive.

 

In the same video, Fornshell implicates some involvement by Skylar's mother, Kim Richardson. "Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances," he says. "You have a situation where she's a cute recent high school graduate, she was a cheerleader... I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate. …A lot of this, from my perspective in viewing this evidence, came down to a situation where if members of the community were to find out that the Richardson girl was pregnant and perhaps gave birth, and even if after giving birth gave that child up for adoption, that was something that simply was not going to be accepted in that household, at least by Skylar and her mother."

 

Edited September 14 by Mockingbird

[Mockingbird 2,837]

1 hour ago, Zagadka said:

"Cheerleader" is just a useless descriptive term because it makes a better headline.

 

As for the story, legal proceedings suck sometimes. The logic of the process actually makes sense, even if it is distasteful to a lot of people. The privilege here is being able to hire a better lawyer.

It's more than that.

 

The prosecutor tried to make the case the Richardson are obsessed with external appearances and having a pregnant teenage girl simply isn't acceptable, so Skylar had to kill the baby.

 

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a19043190/brooke-skylar-richardson-homicide-trial/