During the trial, Rittgers — who represented Richardson with his father, Charles H. Rittgers — pointed to an eating disorder that caused Richardson`s weight to fluctuate as one of the reasons the pregnancy was imperceptible. He also pointed to the warmongering oversight of Richardson`s mother, who saw the weight of the accused as a justification for the selfie photo and several messages captured by prosecutors. David Fornshell, a Warren County attorney, told the Hamilton, Ohio Journal-News that his office has received the defense request and will provide a separate response. An Ohio woman who was acquitted of murdering her newborn baby less than 48 hours after her prom has filed a motion to seal her criminal conviction on a lesser charge. Prosecutors said Richardson admitted to police the child was alive for about five minutes before killing the girl by hugging her. Richardson`s defense attorney countered that police leaked his client`s confession during interrogation using Reid`s controversial technique; The defense said any resulting confession was false. Prosecutors argued that Richardson, then 18, killed her newborn daughter to hide the pregnancy from the world. The defense, on the other hand, said Richardson suffered from an eating disorder and that his weight had fluctuated throughout his life. They said that because of this, it wasn`t strange that Richardson didn`t realize she was pregnant until the end when she went to an OB/GYN appointment for birth control. Prosecutors said Richardson hid the pregnancy and even lied to his mother about it. In any case, she gave birth just a few days after the OB/GYN appointment.

Prosecutors argued that Skylar Richardson posed coldly for this postpartum selfie in a gym after the birth of a child. (Image on a court photo obtained from the Law & Crime Network.) Defense attorney Charles M. Rittgers told Cincinnati FOX affiliate WXIX that the request was “routine” for a low-intensity crime; He said it would help his client “get meaningful employment and education opportunities in the future.” Aaron holds a J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law and a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University. He was a presenter and executive producer for the Law&Crime Network and is now associate editor of the Law&Crime website. DISCLAIMER: This website is for general information purposes only. You should not rely on it when seeking legal advice. Reading this website or interacting with the author via this website does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. This website is not a substitute for the advice of a lawyer. Talk to a competent lawyer in your jurisdiction for legal advice and representation relevant to your situation. Brooke Skylar Richardson`s attorneys filed the document Aug. 12, according to a transcript from the Warren County Common Plea Court in Ohio, reviewed Wednesday by Law & Crime.

Richardson was sentenced to seven days in a county jail in September 2019, but a judge awarded her the time she served, saying the defendant would serve three years under community supervision — essentially probation. Richardson told investigators in an interrogation video that she gave birth while going to the bathroom. Prosecutors said they initially called the baby only “that.” She found only one name — Annabelle — after police were involved, the state said. Richardson is now 23, according to WLWT, NBC`s partner in Cincinnati. His trial has been the subject of several Law & Crime productions, including the Facebook Watch series “Buried with Love” and an episode of “Killer Cases.” The latter is embedded below: Dayton, Ohio NBC partner WDTN said the seal effect, if granted, would allow Richardson to apply for most jobs without mentioning the conviction. Brooke Skylar Richardson, the 20-year-old Ohio woman convicted of burying her newborn, will ask a judge to end her probation early. Prosecutors charged Richardson with aggravated murder, manslaughter, child endangerment, manipulation of evidence and misuse of a body. The charge of tampering with evidence was dismissed. A jury acquitted Richardson of murder, manslaughter and child endangerment; However, the jury found Richardson guilty of abusing the baby`s body. The accused was convicted of abusing a corpse, but acquitted of the other charges: aggravated murder, manslaughter and endangering children. Prosecutors argued in the murder trial that Richardson never planned to keep her baby, hid her pregnancy, secretly gave birth at her home on May 7, 2017, and then attempted to cremate and bury the baby`s remains in her garden.

Prosecutors also alleged Richardson lied when medical staff inadvertently sent information revealing the pregnancy to her doctor`s office. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Richardson was looking for ways to get rid of the child. “There are currently no criminal cases against Ms. Richardson, and the accused`s interest in sealing the official records of this case outweighs the legitimate needs of the state, if any, to retain such records,” the defense reportedly wrote in the motion. “I am literally speechless how happy I am,” Richardson wrote to his mother in one of the letters. “My belly is back omg I`ve never let it leave it again so grt you`re about to see me damn better than before omg.” The trial judge then accepted an early end to this form of probation in November 2020. Rittgers further suggested that the child was stillborn. He said the child did not breathe, move or make noise after birth. Richardson swaddled the child, named him Annabelle and buried his remains, the defense attorney said. Cathy Russon is an Executive Trial Producer at Law&Crime Network. Prior to joining the network, Russon founded CourtChatter.com in 2013, a website that featured trials and gathered a community of process observers. His passion for litigation and the functioning of the legal system was noticed by Dan Abrams, who took over CourtChatter.com in April 2017.

Cathy has covered hundreds of trials over the course of her career, providing viewers with the most up-to-date details about what`s happening in court. Follow us on Twitter@cathyrusson In Ohio, community control is the form of probation. It was sentenced last year to three years of Community control. The judge sentenced her to seven days in jail, but credited her with the sentence she served. The accused testified during questioning that she may have squeezed the baby and attempted to cremate the body. Richardson`s defense told the court that it was a false confession and that Annabelle was stillborn. After giving birth at the age of 18, prosecutors argued that Richardson ruthlessly shared selfies to show the weight she had lost. One of the jurors who spoke after the verdict said prosecutors had not proven the most serious allegations without a doubt. Richardson was convicted only for burying the baby in the backyard. Authorities said she continued insensitively and even wrote the day after her death that her belly was returning to normal. Others, including police, only learned of the death after Richardson went to an appointment with another doctor the following month and that doctor asked him about the pregnancy.