A CHEERLEADER who buried her baby in a yard reportedly “wants to feel normal” as she has been released from probation two years early.
Brooke Skylar Richardson, now 20, was released on Tuesday from community control in Ohio by a Warren County judge, according to Dayton Daily News.
She had completed 14 months of a three-year probation after being convicted in September 2019 for the abuse of a corpse in the death of her daughter.
Richardson had buried her stillborn child in a shallow grave in her backyard while her parents and brother slept in May 2017. She was an 18-year-old high school senior at the time.
The then-teen was cleared of murdering her baby in September 2019 – and was acquitted on charges of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangering.
Speaking at her Tuesday court hearing, Richardson explained she has been undergoing mental health treatment.
As she expressed sadness and guilt, she said: “I am sorry for everything I have put everyone through. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot at all.”
Richardson added: “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.”
Richardson’s attorney Charles M Rittgers had filed a motion last month to lessen her sentence.
The motion read: “She has completed two semesters of college, has a cumulative GPA of over 3.8 and currently has a GPA of 4.0 for most recent semester.
“In addition to school, she has also worked approximately 10 hours per week.
“She sought alternative employment, but was rejected each time due to the fact she is on probation.”
Warren County Judge Donald Oda II granted the early release after coming to the conclusion that “nothing” leads him to believe that Richardson will commit future crimes or disobey the rules.
Last year, the Ohio resident spoke out for the first time, telling Cosmopolitan that her “biggest regret is not having the strength to tell someone that I was pregnant.”
“I spent a lot of my time depressed,” Richardson said. “Every night, I would lie down and wish that I could have died in place of Annabelle.”
“I wish I would have done it differently I’m plagued by guilt every day for not telling someone.”
Richardson was found guilty of the gross abuse of a corpse.
But the judge berated her “grotesque disregard for life” before and after the birth.
Her family held a memorial for little Annabelle in a plot far away from their hometown last month.
Richardson told Cosmo that she is a grieving mother, not a monster, who visits her daughter’s memorial “every week.”
As a teen, Richardson always had irregular periods and was horrified to learn she was pregnant when she went to the Dr William Andrew for birth control pills in April 2017.
She was supposed to go to the University of Cincinnati to study psychology that fall and was too terrified to reveal her secret after the appointment.
On May 5, 2017, Richardson attended prom with her boyfriend Brandon and left the festivities because she felt unwell.
The following day, the cramps intensified and Richardson felt that “that something needed to come out” when she went to the toilet.
A baby girl, deathly white and without the umbilical cord attached, came out with no heartbeat, Richardson told Cosmopolitan; she decided to bury the child and tell no one.
When she tried to get birth control a few months after burying her daughter, Dr Casey Boyce, MD – tipped off by Andrew – questioned her about her pregnancy.
Although Richardson thought she would not get in trouble because the baby was stillborn, Boyce alerted the authorities and two days later, Richardson was being questioned by police without her parents or a lawyer present.
