- Knoop Prairie Finds Itself at Risk<\/a><\/li>
- A Recap of the Third Democratic Debate<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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Lead Detective John Faine during the 4th day of the trial. (YouTube\/Law & Crime Network)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n \tShe didn\u2019t learn of her pregnancy until April 27, 2017 during a visit to the gynecologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUpon learning she was pregnant, Brooke burst into tears and told her doctor that she could not have this child and that she could not tell anyone about being pregnant,\u201d Warren County Assistant Prosecutor Julie Kraft said, according to Fox 19\u2032s video footage of the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kraft also showed the crowd text messages sent by Richardson to her mom <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tRichardson did not tell anyone she was pregnant and didn\u2019t show a baby bump due to a history of eating disorders causing her weight to fluctuate. When her doctors contacted her, wanting to schedule follow-up prenatal care visits, she did not respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the 38-40 week mark of her pregnancy, she gave birth in her bathroom and buried the child in the backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tPolice started an investigation in July 2017, after receiving a call from a doctor\u2019s office about a possible stillborn baby. The remains were dug up and Richardson was interrogated on July 14 and July 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe second interrogation occurred after a forensic pathologist told authorities of her belief that there was charring on the bones of the child, suggesting that the baby was burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIn this interrogation, Richardson admitted to trying to \u201ccremate the baby just a little\u201d with a lighter. She also stated that she thought she might have heard the baby gargle and seen it move a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe pathologist later recanted her opinion and during the trial, there was no evidence of charring shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-48-1024x576.png\")
Footage shown during the trial of the second interrogation and the state of Richardson. (YouTube\/Law & Crime Network)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n \tThe validity of Richardson\u2019s confessions during the second interrogation was questioned by the defense, as there was no attorney present and Richardson has a history of submitting to authority attributed to a \u201cpersonality disorder\u201d obtained after she was sexually abused by a boy at the age of 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAlso in question were the methods of interrogation by the officers. They told Richardson that she wasn\u2019t in trouble, but they knew she wasn\u2019t telling them everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said that her child was being examined and withheld by doctors, knowing the family desired giving it a proper burial. They stated that she would not get her child back unless she told the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDefense attorneys attest that the baby was pale and lifeless upon delivery. She wasn\u2019t breathing and the umbilical cord was not attached to the placenta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe may never know the medical cause of the baby\u2019s death,\u201d said Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell at a press conference after the indictment was announced in 2017, reported by Dayton Daily News.\u201cCertainly it would be substantially easier if we could come in and say what the medical cause of death is, but that was made impossible or nearly impossible when she burned and buried the body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe jury ultimately reached a verdict of not guilty after four hours of deliberation, citing an inability to determine the cause of death due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cI just wanted to say how sorry I was,\u201d Richardson said during her sentencing hearing on Sept. 13, as reported by the Washington Post. \u201cI can sometimes be selfish, but I would like to think that I\u2019ve become better in the knowledge that I\u2019ve upset everyone and hurt so many people with what I\u2019ve done. And I\u2019m forever sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Judge Oda during the sentencing hearing. (YouTube\/Law & Crime Network)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n \tWarren County Common Pleas Judge Donald Oda II chastised her for showing \u201cgrotesque disregard for life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cI firmly believe \u2013\u2013 in fact I know, Miss Richardson, in my heart \u2013\u2013 that if you would have made different decisions in this case, Annabelle would be here today,\u201d Oda said. \u201cAnd I know that may be difficult for you to hear. Some people are inclined to think to themselves, \u2018This is America; we kill unborn babies every day.\u2019 But I don\u2019t think of it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fornshell and Lt. John Faine, the lead detective in the case, hold firm in their beliefs that the baby was killed after birth in a desperate attempt to save face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, Richardson will walk without facing jail time and the family has already bought a funeral plot to give the baby a proper burial. The remains will be returned to the family, as ordered by Oda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry Wolski
<\/strong>Associate Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sept. 12, Brooke Skylar Richardson, a 20-year-old from Carlisle, was found not guilty on charges of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangering of her newborn child, the birth taking place in May 2017. Richardson was charged with gross abuse of a corpse after admitting to burying the baby in her backyard and sentenced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":26443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2110,3,3393],"tags":[3592,2000,1595,3170,1382,3566,2349,3593],"class_list":["post-26441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-tartan-news","category-u-s-news","tag-carlisle","tag-henry-wolski","tag-local","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-skylar-richardson","tag-trial","tag-warren-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screenshot-47.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-6St","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26447,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26441\/revisions\/26447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- A Recap of the Third Democratic Debate<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n