Brooke Skylar Richardson will go on trial for murder for allegedly killing and burying her baby (Picture: AP)

A woman accused of murdering her newborn baby before burying her in her family’s back garden has been told she will face trial for murder.

Brooke Skylar Richardson, now 20, is accused of smashing her baby’s skull and attempting to set fire to the infant’s body in an attempt to burn her corpse before burying her.

She denies the accusations against her and says her baby, who she named Annabelle, was stillborn in her bathroom in July 2017, just days after her senior prom.

Richardson, a high school cheerleader from Ohio, US, will go on trial on 3 September charged with aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.




Her lawyers had applied to delay the trial and have it moved from her home county Warren County, claiming it would be impossible to assemble a jury that was not prejudiced against Richardson in light of all the media coverage around the case.

On Monday, Judge Donald Oda II denied three motions put forward by the lawyers, including requests for the jury to be allowed to view the alleged crime scene and to have the indictment dismissed.

Motions filed last week by the defence seeking to ban Richardson’s diary and lighter fluid found in her family home from being presented as evidence were also dismissed by the judge.

The cheerleader denies murder and claims her baby was delivered stillborn

Pregnant Richardson pictured days before she gave birth

Richardson has been under house arrest for more than a year after a judge ordered a curfew of 9pm to 7am, random home visits and for Richardson to be subject to GPS monitoring.

Her lawyers asked the judge to ban prosecutors from using testimony from an obstetrics-gynecology practice’s medical staff on the grounds of physician-patient privilege.

Prosecutors argued privilege did not apply in this case but they were denied the use of the evidence and forced to delay the start of the trial as a result.

County Prosecutor David Fornshell claims the defendant – referred to as Skylar – killed her baby because she and her family had been worried about community reaction to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

He said: ‘Skylar and her family, particularly her mother, were pretty obsessed with external appearances and how things appeared to the outside world.

‘You have a situation where, you know, she’s a cute high school, recent high school graduate; she was a cheerleader described (as) a good girl by her attorney as you heard after the arraignment.

‘And I think that kind of perception is one that Skylar wanted to perpetuate and her mother wanted to perpetuate.’

Richardson’s lawyers have accused prosecutors of creating ‘a false narrative’ to sensationalise the case.

Richardson with her lawyers and family at court in Ohio (Picture: AP)

Richardson’s mugshot after she was arrested by police (Picture: AP)

They say the baby was delivered stillborn and that an expert witness concluded there was no sign of burning or of trauma that would have caused the baby’s death.

In a motion to move the trial, Richardson’s lawyers said: ‘What started as an 18-year-old high school girl who was frightened and saddened because of giving birth to a stillborn baby whom she named Annabelle and then telling her doctor of the stillborn and burial in the backyard turned into something sinister and grotesque.’



Police were first alerted to the baby after they were contacted by a doctor Richardson had visited a few weeks before she gave birth.

The baby’s remains were found soon after and prosecutors claim Richardson buried the baby shortly after delivering the child.

Richardson is charged with aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. The trial is scheduled to begin on 3 September.

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