As Monroe County Court Judge Christopher Ciaccio handed down his verdict in the murder case of Erica Bell on Friday morning, the only sounds in the packed courtroom were the sobs of Brook Stagles’ family.

Calling Bell “supremely selfish, concerned with her own self-preservation,” Ciaccio convicted the 25-year-old of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in connection with Brook’s death on Nov. 14, 2016.

Both criminal charges required that prosecutors not only prove Bell recklessly engaged in conduct creating a grave risk of serious physical injury or death to a person less than 11 years old but also that her further actions demonstrated a “depraved indifference to human life.”

Ciaccio said Monroe County Assistant District Attorneys Sara VanStrydonck and Patrick Gallagher proved both.

Brook was just 3 years old when she died at Strong Memorial Hospital of complications related to blunt force trauma to her abdomen. Brook was the daughter of Bell's then-boyfriend Michael Stagles of Rochester.

In the days leading up to Brook's death, Bell beat Brook severely, then thwarted attempts by others to get her medical attention when she began displaying symptoms of illness.

Michael Stagles is charged with criminally negligent homicide in connection with his daughter's death and his trial begins on Nov. 13.

Ciaccio said Bell's attempts to hide Brook's injuries from others, coupled with her active obstruction of getting the child any medical attention evinced an "utter disregard for human life" and that the evidence showed she had a "wicked, evil or inhuman" state of mind.

He noted that he believed a Monroe County Jail inmate who testified she'd overheard Bell say she hit Brook because she'd come into the room while Bell was shooting heroin.

Brook was beaten so badly a section of her intestines ruptured, spilling digestive juices and feces into her abdominal cavity. Doctors said during the trial that children typically recover quickly from this sort of injury — often seen in high-velocity car accidents, or if a child slams into bicycle handlebars in a crash — if appropriate medical intervention is provided. In Brook's case, however, she did not get medical treatment for days as systemic infection called sepsis set in.

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Trial testimony showed Brook began exhibiting symptoms of illness on Nov. 11, a Friday. On the morning of Nov. 12, after the mother of Michael Stagles' adolescent son expressed concern about Brook's condition, Bell assured her she was going to take Brook to a hospital. Instead, she and her grandmother, Deborah Smith of Spencerport, took the girl to Clinton Avenue, where Bell bought and used heroin, back to the Albemarle Street home Bell shared with Michael Stagles to pick him up, and then shopping in Henrietta and finally to a baby shower in Ogden.

During the car ride, Michael Stagles attempted to cover over Brook's black eye with liquid foundation. Crime scene photos shown during Bell's trial showed Brook's body was covered with bruises: both sides of her face, her arms, legs, torso, back and groin.

Bell was arrested at the baby shower on an outstanding warrant from drug court and Michael Stagles took Brook back home.

Prosecutors during the trial played jailhouse phone calls Bell made that night to her grandmother and Stagles. In those, Bell admitted to Smith that she had punched Brook in the stomach, and then entreated her to not allow Stagles to bring the girl to the hospital. She also told Stagles that it wasn't necessary to take Brook to a doctor, that the girl would be OK with some rest.

Witnesses who saw Brook on Nov. 12 variously described the girl as looking "like death," or a "zombie" and one who saw Brook at the baby shower said the girl's breathing was labored. That witness tried to have the girl examined by a registered nurse who was also a party guest, but Michael Stagles and Brook left before that happened.

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Michael Stagles brought Brook to Rochester General Hospital around 3:45 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2016. By that time, she was no longer breathing and her heart had stopped. Doctors revived her long enough to transport her to Strong Memorial Hospital, where surgeons unsuccessfully tried to repair her burst bowel. The infection was so severe, however, all they could do was wash out her abdominal cavity and hope for the best.

She died around 10 a.m. the next day.

On Nov. 16, Bell's grandmother told Bell, who was still in jail, that Brook had died. In jailhouse phone calls that day, Bell reacted with worry, wondered how long she might stay in jail if convicted of killing the girl and whether or not it could be proven that she caused Brook's injuries.

"How am I supposed to live the rest of my life with this?" she said.

In phone calls she made later that day to her grandmother, Bell recanted. She said she wasn't really the one who hit Brook, that it was Michael Stagles and that she was so abused by him and afraid of what he might do if Child Protective Services got involved with Brook that she lied to protect him.

Ciaccio said he did not believe any of Bell's testimony. The later phone calls recanting her previous statements only showed that Bell had taken the time to concoct a story that would shift blame to someone else.

Her earlier statements of guilt were "unscripted, unflitered and related the truth," he said, noting that in none of the calls did Bell show any remorse or contrition that Brook was dead.

Assistant District Attorney Sara VanStrydonk said for child abuse to happen there needs to be “the abused, the abuser and the bystander."

VanStrydonk said she hopes that the attention that this case received will combat child abuse and spur more people who might have been bystanders to take action.

"With the outrage and sadness this community feels for what happened to Brook, I hope that everybody in this community can make a pledge, make a promise to Brook that they will not be a bystander," she said. "If they see child abuse, they owe it to Brook and to every child in this community to do something about it."

More:Brook Stagles death: Legislators propose Child Protective Services Reform act

Bell's defense case hinged on claims that Stagles was a domestic abuser and that only a trained medical professional could have known that Brook needed immediate medical treatment.

Bell, homeless at the time because she'd alienated her family by stealing from them to buy drugs, moved in with Stagles on Aug. 18, 2016. That was the second time she'd met him and they ended up together that night because Bell texted him earlier in the day to borrow $20 for heroin, and he said he'd give her the money if she came to his house later to "hang out."

On the stand, Bell said she initially wasn't allowed to go to the upstairs portion of the Stagles home on Albemarle Street, and could only use a door that led directly to the basement where she, Michael and Brook slept. She said she wasn't even allowed upstairs to use the bathroom, and that Michael made her defecate in the yard.

She said they frequently fought, with Stagles slapping and hitting her, pulling her hair and even burning her with lit cigarettes. After one fight, she said, Stagles had locked her out of the house, forcing her to spend the night in a junked boat parked nearby.

During a fight the night of Nov. 11, 2016, she said, as Stagles had her pinned to the bed and was beating her, Brook began to cry. She said Stagles went over to his daughter and punched her three times in the stomach.

Bell also claimed a history of family abuse from childhood. She said her mother's boyfriend sexually assaulted her numerous times throughout her early teens.

A domestic abuse expert testified that it wasn't uncommon for domestic abuse survivors to not tell others about the abuse they were suffering in their home, or for survivors to take responsibility for things their abusers had done. The witness said she had never spoken with or interviewed Bell.

Larry Kasperek, Bell's attorney, declined to comment after the verdict.

Bell faces a sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison on the second-degree murder conviction and 5 to 25 years in prison on the first-degree manslaughter conviction. Those sentences would be served concurrently. Sentencing will be Nov. 8.

“Brook’s name is going to live on forever,” said John Geer, Stagles' maternal grandfather.

During the Bell trial, it was learned that there had been at least two prior reports to Monroe County's Department of Human Services regarding possible child abuse or neglect regarding Brook.

'I don't know what kind of person does that to a child," Geer said.

A Democrat and Chronicle report on Sunday detailed shortcomings that include understaffing and high caseloads among the county's Child Protective Services agency.

A coalition of 10 Democratic Monroe County Legislators have proposed the Brook Stagles Child Protective Services Reform Act, which this week got its first Republican sponsor, Legislator Tony Micciche, R-Rochester. The bill would cap caseloads for CPS workers at no more than 15 at a time.

The bill could be introduced to the full legislature next month.

Following Friday's verdict, Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo released the following statement:

“As a mother and grandmother, I have been heartbroken by the loss of Brook Stagles. Today’s decisive verdict delivers some measure of justice in her memory. The Court’s decision makes clear that Erica Bell was responsible for inflicting the injuries that led to Brook’s tragic death. It is my hope that Bell will face swift retribution in this realm and even stronger judgment thereafter."

She continued. "This trial has provided an opportunity to start a broader conversation about the societal challenges that imperil children across our nation. I look forward to discussing next week what Monroe County has done, continues to do and will do moving forward to keep children safe.”

MCDERMOT@gannett.com