Cheerleader who buried baby in backyard released from probation early

The former Ohio cheerleader acquitted of murdering her newborn baby has been released from probation nearly two months early — saying she wants to be “a normal person again.”

Brooke Skylar Richardson was sentenced to three years probation for burying the baby girl’s corpse in her parents’ Carlisle backyard in May 2017. She was released on Tuesday after serving 14 months, the Dayton Daily News reported.

racy Johnson, the grandmother of Richardson’s child, fought against her early release.

“You had the option of giving her up to six months in prison with time served … I don’t think three years probation is too much to ask,” Johnson told Warren County Judge Donald Oda II.

Richardson, meanwhile, again apologized in a teary-eyed statement in court.

“I am sorry for everything I have put everyone through … I know that doesn’t seem like a lot at all,” she said, according to the publication.

“I am very sorry and I hurt a lot. I just want to show that I can be a normal person again, that’s all.”

The judge said the purpose of probation was not punishment.

“There is no reason for me to invest the time and resources of my probation department in supervising you,” Oda told Richardson.

“It is an opportunity to demonstrate why the stated prison term of 12 months in prison should not be imposed.”

Richardson was 18 years old when she hid her pregnancy from her family and friends, giving birth to a full-term baby girl she named Annabelle in 2017.

She claimed the baby was stillborn — but was charged with killing the child and burying it in her parents’ backyard.

A jury acquitted Richardson of murder but convicted her of abuse of a corpse.

Oda sentenced her to seven days in county jail but she was credited with time served and given three years probation.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/brooke-skylar-richardson-released-from-probation-early/

Photo Credit: AP