Ohio Cheerleader Who Buried Baby in Backyard 'Not Guilty' for Murder

Mary Margaret Olohan

Politics, Americas

She had nothing to say as she left the courtroom.

An Ohio high school cheerleader has been found not guilty after being accused of killing her newborn baby and burying the baby in her backyard.

Twenty-year-old Brooke Skylar Richardson delivered her baby in her bedroom on May 7, 2017 at the age of 18, CNN reports. Two months later, authorities discovered the baby’s skeletal remains buried in her backyard with a flower placed on top.

The investigation began after Richardson went to the doctor’s office without a baby after previously going to the office for a pregnancy test, prosecutors said, CNN reports. When the doctor asked where the baby was, Richardson allegedly burst into tears and said she buried the baby in the backyard after it was stillborn.

A jury, composed of seven women and five men, convicted Richardson of abuse of a corpse Thursday but found Richardson not guilty of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, according to CNN affiliate WKRC.

Richardson faces up to a year in prison and will be sentenced Friday, according to NBC.

WATCH:

#SkylarRichardson had nothing to say as she left the courtroom @Local12 pic.twitter.com/Jlc7u2hEun

— Angenette Levy (@Angenette5) September 12, 2019

Prosecutors alleged Richardson had entered a new relationship when she discovered she was pregnant and subsequently killed her baby in the middle of the night, wanting nothing to do with the baby or the child’s father.

“Upon finding out that she was pregnant by a boy she had nothing to do with, Brooke Richardson burst into tears and told her doctor that she could not have this baby,” Prosecutor Steve Knippen told jurors this month, according to WKRC.