GUILTY GUILTY OF ABUSE OF A CORPSE ONLY OH - Annabelle Richardson, newborn, found in grave 7 May 2017 #3

[Gardenista]

I'm listening to this prosecutor right now and I want to wring his neck. He just keeps saying Skylar met 15 items on the neonaticide checklist. Someone from Law & Crime freaking called the guy who wrote the checklist and they said the way the prosecution used it was incorrect. I hope he calls the prosecutor out on this.

 

[Pak31]

It's not a crime to have a stillborn baby. The state can't charge someone with manslaughter if they go into labor at home and don't, as you say, do a cursory Internet search about what to do etc. The state can't criminally punish a woman for not delivering a live baby.

IMO the prosecution in this case wanted to punish BSR criminally for many things that are not actually crimes. For not behaving a certain way (the whole 'what kind of a mother wouldn't scream, ask for help, buy diapers, x,y,z). For not wanting a baby. All things which weren't elements of the crimes charged, with the exception of the charge she was convicted on.

But her actions during pregnancy and delivery put this baby at risk. IF the baby was born deceased it was because Of her actions while pregnant, i.e. taking birth control, and if the baby was born alive had she been in a hospital she’d maybe be alive today. It’s BSR’s lack of prenatal care that led to the demise of this child. OR it is possible she was born alive and could have survived but her not wanting a baby made her squeeze her until she passed away. I totally believe she’s possible of that. She’s pure evil. She admitted she’d do anything not to have that child. However that baby died it was because of BSR.

 

[Seattle1]

I see your points, but interpret differently. "Am I going to be in trouble for murdering her?", IMO reasonable to say as a panicky thought of someone having been brought into police questioning in this situation. She also said many many times she didn't hurt the baby.

Squeezing really tight, when I watched that part of the interview I almost thought it more in line with a frantic check if the baby was OK. Many commenters have asked why didn't she do CPR (police asked her she saif she didn't know it), suction airway, etc. I see this squeezing as a clumsy attempt at assessing if alive. I understand though that others may see it as sinister.

You don't squeeze a baby hard to see if she's OK, and she clearly wasn't attempting CPR.

If you believe baby isn't OK, you get help - call 911. Even a 4 year old understands this.

I think she said "I didn't hurt the baby" as many times as she said "I never meant to kill my baby -- I didn't do it on purpose."

Nope, for BSR - killing Annabelle was as easy as 1, 2, 3.

 

[Pak31]

This case has been fascinating, controversial and confusing all at once and in the center of it is a little baby named Annabelle. I have gone back and forth so many times on what I think happened. Obviously I know she was pregnant and delivered a child on her own in the middle of the night. Was she alive? Was she stillborn? I don't know.
Having a 19 year old daughter who was bullied (remember bullying comes in many forms) I tried to put myself in the mind of BR. What I see is a girl who was bullied by her the one person you would not necessarily expect it from...her mother. I believe her mother brought her up to feel like looks and being thin were everything, and I think this became BR's mantra. I am sure there were many times when Br wished she could just be herself, but I also see someone with very low self esteem who was always trying to please her mother. (My daughter was bullied in school by girls for being overweight, funny thing is she was not heavy, just not stick thin. It caused her to start cutting and took 2 years of therapy...I remember one time she showed me a picture of her and her "friends" and I said how cute and she said why am always the fat shadow.) Imagine the bully being your mother. I also feel like she felt that if she ever did anything to make her mother think she was less than perfect, she would be a failure.
I think it would be hard to grow up with a mother who was extremely vain and who placed so much emphasis on looks and what people think of you.
I do not believe this excuses what she did, but it helps me understand why. I am not going to go into my feelings of what happened that night because I don't know. I do think the toll on her self esteem and her wanting to just be accepted played a huge roll in all her decisions (right or wrong) that she made. Including when she was delivering Annabelle all the way through the 2nd confession. None of this makes what she did right, this is just me thinking. This is all MOO

Very well said and from a psychological standpoint I believe you are spot on!!! It totally makes sense as to why BSR is the way she is BUT that is beside the point. She and she alone ended the life of this baby. She made the decision. She chose to be vain instead of taking care of herself and her unborn baby. She’s pure evil. We often see stories about serial killers and how they had a rough childhood. That’s all interesting and explains a lot but it doesn’t excuse what they did. The same should apply to her. She still did the deed. She should pay for that. Instead she’ll be free soon and get to go out and hook up with guys and work on flattening her tummy. So sad and so wrong.

 

[Mariposa]

But her actions during pregnancy and delivery put this baby at risk. IF the baby was born deceased it was because Of her actions while pregnant, i.e. taking birth control, and if the baby was born alive had she been in a hospital she’d maybe be alive today. It’s BSR’s lack of prenatal care that led to the demise of this child. OR it is possible she was born alive and could have survived but her not wanting a baby made her squeeze her until she passed away. I totally believe she’s possible of that. She’s pure evil. She admitted she’d do anything not to have that child. However that baby died it was because of BSR.

But those things aren't crimes. Not a crime to not get good prenatal care. Not a crime to take the pills. Maybe bad or negligent or immoral or evil etc, I'm talking about what is or isn't a crime.

I'm a mom and a lawyer (not verified so feel free to disbelieve me!) and when I hear things to the tune of : even if the baby was stillborn that's her fault and she should go to jail...that stops me cold.

Many suffer miscarriages and stillbirths for many reasons. It's tragic enough to most women that I don't agree it should be a blame game with the threat of criminal punishment hanging over women's heads. Ever.

 

[MyBelle]

I just think there is a difference between delivering a baby that is truly dead/stillborn, i.e. has been declared dead in the womb by a physician and then having to deliver a dead baby or a baby who is born not breathing and cannot be revived, versus delivering a baby who is alive but unable to breathe either because something is blocking its airway or it's head is under water and the mother chooses not to assist the child for her own selfish reasons. Legal or not Skylar is going to have a lifetime to weigh her personal choices, and I hope that whole family gets some intense counseling.

I think you are assuming a stillborn baby can be saved. If that were remotely true, babies wouldn't be stillborn or dying after birth in hospitals.

JMO

Considering the note they wrote on the verdict form the jurors must have really been outraged at what the State tried to do to her. I hope the jurors come out blast the evil people who did this to her into the next universe.

However, I won't be surprised if they are too frightened to come forward.

I think they will come forward....to the defense.

JMO

 

[MyBelle]

I'm listening to this prosecutor right now and I want to wring his neck. He just keeps saying Skylar met 15 items on the neonaticide checklist. Someone from Law & Crime freaking called the guy who wrote the checklist and they said the way the prosecution used it was incorrect. I hope he calls the prosecutor out on this.

The prosecutor deserves to be called out!

JMO

 

[Gardenista]

I think they will come forward....to the defense.

JMO

If I was a juror, I would be absolutely livid after seeing the stunt he pulled this afternoon with his PC. He's a major narc IMO. Same with the female prosecutor.

 

[MyBelle]

But her actions during pregnancy and delivery put this baby at risk. IF the baby was born deceased it was because Of her actions while pregnant, i.e. taking birth control, and if the baby was born alive had she been in a hospital she’d maybe be alive today. It’s BSR’s lack of prenatal care that led to the demise of this child. OR it is possible she was born alive and could have survived but her not wanting a baby made her squeeze her until she passed away. I totally believe she’s possible of that. She’s pure evil. She admitted she’d do anything not to have that child. However that baby died it was because of BSR.

BBM. That is your opinion. I believe BSR's eating disorder led to the death of the baby. Having an eating disorder isn't a crime. We'll agree to disagree.

 

[Ksprincess2]

I'm not at all suprised by this verdict after the Erika Murray trial. I think tomorrow Skylar will be sentenced to probation and we'll never hear about her again. I feel like she is a very sick girl with a horrible Mom but that does not excuse her behavior. I hope as soon as she can she checks herself into a long term inpatient eating disorder program out of state away from Mommy and gets some serious therapy before she moves on with her life. Also hope she gets an IUD and keeps it till she's mature enough to think of someone's life besides her own.

 

[MyBelle]

If I was a juror, I would be absolutely livid after seeing the stunt he pulled this afternoon with his PC. He's a major narc IMO. Same with the female prosecutor.

I didn't see the press conference but agree about the female prosecutor. I think abortion providers will use this case as an example of malicious prosecution of a woman just because she admitted she didn't want a baby when she found out she was pregnant. That's a terrible precedent.

JMO

 

[BlackCloud]

I'm not at all suprised by this verdict after the Erika Murray trial. I think tomorrow Skylar will be sentenced to probation and we'll never hear about her again. I feel like she is a very sick girl with a horrible Mom but that does not excuse her behavior. I hope as soon as she can she checks herself into a long term inpatient eating disorder program out of state away from Mommy and gets some serious therapy before she moves on with her life. Also hope she gets an IUD and keeps it till she's mature enough to think of someone's life besides her own.

We'll hear about her for at least a couple years. Trust me.

 

[AnnInOhio]

I think you are assuming a stillborn baby can be saved. If that were remotely true, babies wouldn't be stillborn or dying after birth in hospitals.

JMO


I think they will come forward....to the defense.

JMO

No, a stillborn baby is dead. But babies are often born alive but not immediately breathing if their airway is blocked. My position is if you care about your baby living and you're not positive it's dead you should get help immediately if you don't know what to do. She chose not to even attempt to get help for her baby when she wasn't sure if it was dead or alive. That callous indifference is inexcusable, if not illegal.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Were jurors really asked those questions?

Well, I don't know as I wasn't there (and I don't think it was televised), but I have been on three juries, and those are the type of questions attorneys ask in voir dire. For example, before a case that was a civil hit-and-run (was USPS liable to the postal carrier; and could the postal carrier's lumbar pain be traced to the accident where his USPS mail truck was rammed from the back); they asked the following list of questions:

-Were any of the jurors in the health profession? Namely, doctors, nurses, medical technicians, chiropractors, orthopedic assistants? (They didn't want anyone with any preconceived notions or special knowledge and experience in reading MRI's, X-rays, etc., if they were used as exhibits - no personal interpretation);

-Have any of you ever had physical therapy or been hospitalized for lower back pain? (They wanted to weed out individuals who would have preconceived notions and first-hand experience. I assume this is because they didn't want people thinking "He is describing pain just like mine, and thus I think the reason for him being in pain, is the same reason the doctor/physical therapist told me I was in pain." Whether the cause of that pain be roller-skating, riding horseback, hiking, what-have-you).

I have had those treatments; and thus, for example, I knew, because I had asked my physical therapist, who said, "I've read probably 100,000 of these case studies, singly and in batches. There is no one set cause. People with your type of spinal stenosis" (fancy term for herniated discs) "have been athletes; and they have been couch potatoes. The above categories of people have manifested pain as a result of their symptoms; and they have not manifested pain, in just about equal measure, so in short: Nobody knows."

Therefore, I surmised that this is the kind of thing the attorneys would want to know about in a trial centering on a stillbirth. Had the jurors, or had they not, experienced one themselves, or were they medical professionals, etc. Those people would probably get exempted en masse from voir dire the minute they answered "yes" to the question - but maybe not. If one of the lawyers wanted individuals who had experience with stillbirths, they might try to ask questions so to keep or shed these jurors, depending upon whichever outcome the lawyers wanted to obtain.

Again, all of the above is JMO as a thrice-former juror; but as a general rule, they want you as ignorant as possible of issues that will be raised in connection with the trial of a case, to avoid your experiencing confirmation bias.

 

[Seattle1]

Something I missed that was mentioned in the closing was something about Skylar's mom taking a message from the OB/GYN office and asking Skylar if she was pregnant. Can anyone give me some quick background on what that was about and did they say what the clinic said to mom that made her suspect pregnancy? Thanks.

Welcome to Websleuths @AnnInOhio!

There's a screen shot of this patient summary in earlier thread, but I'll attempt to describe it for you. Essentially, it description of BSR's medical appointment at OBGYN on 4/26/17.

At the top of page in bold typeface were column headings including:

Date of appointment/service;
Description of consult;
Rx Script;
Rx Start /Discontinue date;**
And comments.

The first entry-- followed the above format, described BSR's appointment specific to obtaining birth control script, and the comment section left blank.

The second entry was identical to the first entry except for the following notation added under comment: "patient pregnant"

**Important to also note that the Start/Discontinue dates for the script were both shown as 4/26/17 - as script was canceled when pregnancy test was positive.

Dr Andrews testified the bc script was written prior to BSR's test at his office, and script canceled upon confirmation of positive result.

By all accounts, it appears an error occurred when BSR picked up the 3 /month script at CVC Pharmacy same day and/or before the cancellation order posted.

Understandably, the "pt pregnant" message put mom in panic mode, and texted BSR demanding a phone call ASAP. BSR replied she just arrived at school, and couldn't talk.

BSR told detectives she was able to convinced mom that the summary was a mistake, and backed up her lie with the bc pills in hand. (i.e., wouldn't need if pregnant).

Hope this answers your question!

 

[osu]

Welcome to Websleuths @AnnInOhio!

There's a screen shot of this patient summary in earlier thread, but I'll attempt to describe it for you. Essentially, it description of BSR's medical appointment at OBGYN on 4/26/17.

At the top of page in bold typeface were column headings including:

Date of appointment/service;
Description of consult;
Rx Script;
Rx Start /Discontinue date;**
And comments.

The first entry-- followed the above format, described BSR's appointment specific to obtaining birth control script, and the comment section left blank.

The second entry was identical to the first entry except for the following notation added under comment: "patient pregnant"

**Important to also note that the Start/Discontinue dates for the script were both shown as 4/26/17 - as script was canceled when pregnancy test was positive.

Dr Andrews testified the bc script was written prior to BSR's test at his office, and script canceled upon confirmation of positive result.

By all accounts, it appears an error occurred when BSR picked up the 3 /month script at CVC Pharmacy same day and/or before the cancellation order posted.

Understandably, the "pt pregnant" message put mom in panic mode, and texted BSR demanding a phone call ASAP. BSR replied she just arrived at school, and couldn't talk.

BSR told detectives she was able to convinced mom that the summary was a mistake, and backed up her lie with the bc pills in hand. (i.e., wouldn't need if pregnant).

Hope this answers your question!

Here’s the email attachment that BSR’s mother Kim received from Dr Andrews office.

 

[Seattle1]

The power of the State to destroy the lives of the innocent, even when they are found not guilty at trial, is precisely why the State shouldn't be allowed to abuse it's authority and power, and must be held accountable when it does.

Respectfully, I'm not sure why this unrelated post sent by reply.
Nonetheless, if you have specific example of the State abusing it's authority and power, please cite and I'll be happy to discuss with you.

 

[Seattle1]

Here’s the email attachment that BSR’s mother Kim received from Dr Andrews office.

Awe ... @osu -- you're the best!

 

[Eloise]

But her actions during pregnancy and delivery put this baby at risk. IF the baby was born deceased it was because Of her actions while pregnant, i.e. taking birth control,

taking birth control doesn't hurt a baby if it fails and you get pregnant. Birth control pills: Harmful in early pregnancy?

Many women continue to take birth control throughout pregnancy not realising they've gotten pregnant (because it's not 100% effective). Heck I've got a friend who didn't know she was pregnant until 22 weeks! Baby was totally fine.

I can't help but feel the right judgment was made. She was wrong to bury the baby in the backyard, 100%. But as there's no way to know beyond reasonable doubt if the baby was stillborn or not, she absolutely can't get in trouble for the death of the baby. You can't criminalise "bad" prenatal care. For one thing, opinions on what constitutes good prenatal care vary wildly. Women find out they're pregnant at very different stages and many women aren't planning on getting pregnant. The slippery slope is criminalising normal behaviour (eg not taking prenatal vitamins, drinking alcohol, dieting) in women who didn't even plan on getting pregnant.

She has experienced quite toxic mothering. She needs to cut her mother out of her life.

But those things aren't crimes. Not a crime to not get good prenatal care. Not a crime to take the pills. Maybe bad or negligent or immoral or evil etc, I'm talking about what is or isn't a crime.

I'm a mom and a lawyer (not verified so feel free to disbelieve me!) and when I hear things to the tune of : even if the baby was stillborn that's her fault and she should go to jail...that stops me cold.

Many suffer miscarriages and stillbirths for many reasons. It's tragic enough to most women that I don't agree it should be a blame game with the threat of criminal punishment hanging over women's heads. Ever.

Exactly.

 

[Hippiemomof5]

No, a stillborn baby is dead. But babies are often born alive but not immediately breathing if their airway is blocked. My position is if you care about your baby living and you're not positive it's dead you should get help immediately if you don't know what to do. She chose not to even attempt to get help for her baby when she wasn't sure if it was dead or alive. That callous indifference is inexcusable, if not illegal.

Yes, ^^^ this!!