Update: Following this publication, Richardson was sentenced to three years probation after being found guilty of gross abuse of a corpse following the death of her newborn daughter, Annabelle. She was also sentenced to seven days in jail, for which she was credited with time served and immediately released from custody.
A 20-year-old cheerleader in Ohio could get nothing more than probation after police found the body of her dead newborn baby buried in her family’s backyard.
According to this, a 20-year-old Ohio woman was acquitted of manslaughter, child endangerment and first-degree murder Thursday after prosecutors alleged she killed her newborn child and dumped the body out behind her parents’ house in May of 2017.
Brooke Skylar Richardson claimed the baby had been stillborn, but did admit to burying the body at her family's home in Carlisle. The baby, who Richardson had named “Annabelle,” was found a solid two months after her death.
The NBC affiliate WLWT in Cincinnati reports Richardson said she was scared because the baby was stillborn, panicked, and buried it in the backyard. Prosecutors told the court she hadn’t even bothered to wrap the child in a blanket first, who they alleged was alive when she was born.
“A forensic pathologist who testified for the prosecution concluded the baby died from ‘homicidal violence,’” NBC added. “Prosecutors said Richardson had searched on the internet for ‘how to get rid of a baby.’ They played video for the jury of a police interview in which Richardson said the baby might have moved and made noises.”
But due to the baby’s state of decomposition, forensic investigators weren’t able to determine exactly how the child had died, prosecutors explained.
Richardson also sent text messages shortly after the baby’s death bragging about getting her pre-pregnancy body back, according to Assistant prosecutor Steven Knippen.
“Shortly, after murdering her daughter and placing her daughter in the dirt, and not even having the decency to cover it with a blanket, she sent two elated text messages: My belly is back, my belly is back,” Knippen told the court.
Even still, the jury ruled Richardson wasn’t guilty of murder. She was, however, found guilty of abuse of a corpse and is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. The charge carries a sentence of six to 12 months in prison, but as a first-time offender, Richardson could get nothing more than probation, NBC added.