Cheerleader's emotional police interview after allegedly killing baby

The cheerleader on trial for allegedly killing her baby broke down in a police interview, telling officers she “meant no harm” to her “stillborn” child.

Brooke Skylar Richardson, now 20-years-old, is on trial and accused of aggravated murder and four other felonies in the 2017 birth and death of her baby girl.

The remains of Richardson’s daughter, who Richardson named “Annabelle”, were found in a shallow grave in her backyard in the US state of Ohio.

On day two of her trial, the jury watched a video of her first police interrogation, which went for 90 minutes and showed her arguing that she didn’t kill her baby.

As she cried to officers, she insisted she “didn’t kill her” and kept the child secret because felt she “couldn’t tell anybody”.

“Is that really bad … I didn’t mean any harm to her. Are you going to put me in jail because of that?” she asked.

Footage showed her crying inside the interrogation room while explaining how she gave birth in her family home’s bathroom, while on the toilet.

She said the child was not breathing when it was born, didn’t have a heartbeat and wasn’t making any noise. She was also unsure if it was born with an umbilical cord.

Richardson has maintained her innocence, saying the baby she gave birth to two days after her prom on May 7, 2017, was stillborn.

She messaged her mother just hours after the alleged murder, saying she was happy with her post-baby body, Ohio news publication the Journal-News reported.

“I am literally speechless with how happy I am my belly is back OMG,” she texted her mother, Assistant Warren County Prosecutor Steven Kippen told the jury during the second day of Richardson’s trial.

“Brooke Richardson murdered a baby she didn’t want and never intended to keep.

“Upon finding out she was pregnant by a boy she wanted nothing to do with, Brooke Richardson burst into tears and told the doctor that she cannot have this baby.”

Attorney Charles M Rittgers rejected prosecution claims that Richardson confessed, saying it was a false confession that police pressured her to say the baby was born alive and she burned it.

In spring 2017, Richardson was an 18-year-old Carlisle High School cheerleader when a doctor confirmed that she was pregnant. By that summer, she would be accused of murder.

Prosecution witness Dr William Andrew testified that he informed her on April 26 she was pregnant.

“I can’t have a baby! I’m going to college,” Richardson said, according to Dr Andrew’s testimony.

Prosecutors said she soon began plotting “how to get rid of a baby”, even searching the internet for ideas.

That July 12, Richardson went back to the same medical practice office for a birth control prescription refill.

While she was there, Dr Casey Boyce noted that records showed Richardson had been pregnant during her last visit in April.

Dr Boyce has testified that Richardson burst into tears and said: “I had it [the baby] alone in my house and I buried it in my backyard”.

She recalled this exchange with Richardson, asking her if she was the first person she had told about the baby – to which Richardson replied “yes”.

If convicted, Richardson could face life in prison.

The trial is ongoing and could last up to three weeks.

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