And a tragic update out of Escambia County Florida tonight. The body of a private investigator missing for more than a month has been found. Saying that that body they found around noon today is believed to be that of Taylor Wright. Deputies have charged Wright’s friend Ashley MacArthur with second-degree murder.”
“Hello. Hey Zach. Your your wife is uh she’s being arrested this evening and charged with murder.”
“What?”
“Ashley MacArthur, she’s accused of murdering Pensacola private investigator Taylor Wright.”
“I don’t know where she is. Where’s her body at?”
“I don’t know where she is. She’s dead though.”
“You had a young woman, Taylor Wright, that was murdered. There was no question about that. She was shot in the back of the head and buried.”
“Do you know where Taylor Wright is, do you know if Taylor Wright’s dead, did you kill Taylor Wright?”
“And what else did she say about finding her?”
“Um, that she told me they’ll they’ll never find that bitch. She’s gone.”
“There will be no physical evidence showing you that Ashley MacArthur had anything to do with the death of Taylor Wright.”
“As to the charge in count one, we the jury find the defendant Ashley MacArthur…”
“What’s the address of your register okay? Your wife is in a bar. This is what he’s going to tell you. They don’t know how to get out of that situation.”
“And I grabbed a gun.”
“Trying to find the first place to put a body.”
“No sir. The only thing they could do was kill him.”
“You want to say anything? We the jury and find the defendant…”
“It’s a beautiful place. We’re a place where people vacation. We have the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Love our Blue Angels. Uh world famous for those. It’s a great town. Uh great place to raise your family. Like all uh cities we do have murders but uh you know anytime a murder comes up of this nature it certainly draws attention. Uh first name is Taylor, last name is Wright, W R I G h t.”
“Taylor Wright was 33 years old when her body was found more than a month after she had been first reported missing.”
“Taylor should have called me. Taylor would have called me and she didn’t.”
“She was a former police officer from South Carolina turned a private investigator. The mother of an 8-year-old son, Taylor moved to Pensacola after a contentious divorce and fell in love with a woman.”
“We met um on a on an online dating app. We were in a relationship for a short period of time but enough time to have sincere feelings and to say that I love this person and she’s told me she loved me back.”
“Cassandra Waller is a public school administrator who soon invited Taylor to move in with her.”
“Uh she was kind, she was outgoing, she would give you the shirt off of her back. She was full of life, she was full of energy, she had all kinds of hope, had great big giant ideas.”
“But there were issues in Taylor Wright’s life. Her new girlfriend suspected she was using drugs and had caught Taylor cheating on her with another woman. And Taylor and her ex-husband Jeff Wright were still fighting over their son and their money.”
“I just know that Taylor didn’t feel like it was equal.”
“In violation of the court orders, Taylor had withdrawn $100,000 from a joint account with her ex-husband and asked another of her new Florida friends Ashley MacArthur to help her hide the money by putting it in Ashley’s bank account. But now the divorce judge had ordered Taylor to show up with the money or face jail.”
“So the night before Taylor went missing we went out to eat and Taylor was just really stressed out. She was talking about how Ashley was holding on to this money, that Taylor needed to get it back, and she she felt awkward about it. She felt like something wasn’t right.”
“The next day Taylor and Ashley were set to go to a bank in Pensacola to pick up the money Ashley had been holding for her.”
“And we gave each other a hug and a kiss. And at that time I’m walking out of my driveway, Ashley pulls up. I say, ‘Hey Ash,’ and she’s like, ‘Hey Cassandra.’ And um I said, ‘You guys have a good day?’ Hey I got in my car and I drove away. That was the last time I ever saw Taylor.”
“A few hours later, Ashley called Cassandra to say that instead of going to the bank she and Taylor had driven out of town to go horseback riding on a farm in East Milton owned by Ashley’s family.”
“I was like, ‘Weren’t you guys supposed to go to the bank?’ She goes, ‘Yeah, you know Taylor’s really stressed out with the divorce stuff and she’s just been really emotional today.’ These are the things that she’s telling me: ‘Tell her everything’s fine. Like there’s we we’ll get through this.'”
“Later that night she got this text message from Taylor’s phone, saying, ‘I’m I’m sorry. Like I’m not doing anything wrong.’ I started getting angry and upset cuz here we were in a relationship.”
“I’m thinking Taylor is telling me that she needs time to herself and she’s not including her partner. And it hurt my feelings.”
“And as the days and nights went by, Cassandra Waller was both worried something had happened and then angry Taylor might have left her for someone else.”
“I sent her texts. I tried calling her. Nothing. No responses, nothing.”
“But after more than a week what had begun as a missing person’s case for police soon took on an ominous cast.”
“Everyone is initially a suspect. So certainly Taylor’s ex-husband um was certainly on everyone’s radar and Cassandra, Taylor’s girlfriend at the time.”
“But very early on we treated it as if it were a homicide being handled by two detectives Chad Wilhy and Richard Giggliotti who had just been promoted to detective.”
“The first thing we did with this case was contacted Cassandra Waller.”
“They there was a time they came to my house and at one point they Detective Giggliotti crawled under my house. So I’m sitting on the front porch with Detective Will height balling my eyes out because this is embarrassing. Why am I being looked at?”
“My intention right now is not to arrest you for anything. Oh, trying to find out why your girlfriend’s disappeared.”
“And here I am in this room that they would use to interrogate people and it’s it’s padded walls. It’s a place you don’t want to be. I can’t help but be scared that I’m going to get in trouble for something that I did and I was trying to help.”
“She’s in her inner circle. She’s her girlfriend. So she needs to be pressured as well during an interview to gauge her reaction, to see how honest she’s being with us. Those questions do got to be asked.”
“If you knew who harmed her, would you tell us?”
“Absolutely.”
“If she was dead right now and you knew, would you tell us?”
“But I don’t know.”
“Did you hope her no?”
“They asked me if I killed Taylor. And I I lost it.”
“When Ashley MacArthur was brought in for questioning as the last person known to have seen Taylor Wright alive…”
“So let’s start that day from the beginning.”
“She said she doubted any harm had come to Taylor Wright offering suggestions about her whereabouts.”
“She wanted to appear as she as though she was cooperative, right, and she wanted, she didn’t want to um deny anything that we asked. She wanted to seem cooperative.”
“Telling the detectives Taylor might just be off on a drug bid.”
“The only thing I worry about is with the drug situation. Like I wouldn’t even, if I didn’t know about the drug situation, I wouldn’t be worried about her. I would say Taylor’s doing what Taylor does. But then that lifestyle becomes a different group of people. Sure. Which is what I worry about with her.”
“And we don’t know that she ever had intentions on leaving. Maybe she wanted to go have fun and then someone found her with a bag full of cash.”
“We… And that’s that’s why we we have to follow it down every single avenue and ask all these question.”
“Cassandra’s understanding was was that this money was in a safety deposit box of Ashley MacArthur’s at Wells Fargo. So when Ashley was asked about a safety deposit box at Wells Fargo she said that there was nothing.”
“Have you ever had a safety deposit box there?”
“There was no safety deposit box. There was no account at Wells Fargo with money. That that was, that didn’t happen.”
“But text messages on Taylor’s phone made it clear Taylor thought her money was at the Wells Fargo. Talking about meeting at the WF, likely being the Wells Fargo, needing to get there, needing to get the money.”
“Clearly that was a problem. We spent time driving the route that Ashley MacArthur gave us that they took uh looking for surveillance footage.”
“They found this surveillance tape at a gas station nowhere near the bank where Ashley says they stopped to buy Taylor a beer around 10 in the morning.”
“Have you ever seen her drinking at that time of day before?”
“No. I thought it was odd behavior. And in fact I said something to her. I was like, beer at this time of the morning? She was like, ‘Well it’s 5:00 somewhere.’ I’m like, it’s a perfect response.”
“Then Ashley told the detectives they headed out to the horse farm in East Milton.”
“And so we just drove out there and she was just blowing off steam I guess and drinking beer and we were just hanging out. She strange girl.”
“Ashley claims she then drove Taylor back from East Milton to Ashley’s home and that Taylor called an Uber and left.”
“She was fine. She just said that she wanted to go have a beer and that she was going to get an Uber to take her to go have a beer.”
“What detectives would soon discover was another claim from Ashley MacArthur that would not check out.”
“When we contacted Uber, Taylor’s account hadn’t been used in months. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.”
“Now more than a month since Taylor Wright went missing, Cassandra Waller was increasingly desperate to find out what happened to her, pleading for help on Facebook.”
“Nobody’s reached back out to me. I still haven’t heard from her. Nobody’s heard from her. So I’m I’m calling hospitals in Louisiana, in Mississippi, in Alabama.”
“And Ashley MacArthur was busy calling the detectives to suggest where Taylor Wright might be hiding.”
“Hey Detective Go Ashley how are you?”
“I’m well. How are you?”
“Unaware that she had become the prime suspect.”
“She got back on the cocaine and, you know, do we need to like, you know, look an alley you know for her or…”
“She’s definitely curious on what we’re doing and where we’re at. She’s definitely fishing for information. Uh, but we didn’t want to tip her off.”
“Um I was just calling to see if there was any update or anything going on.”
“And and so on a regular basis she would call me and I had to of course be friendly with her.”
“I hate to bother you but a spy check.”
“All right.”
“I think Ashley, I couldn’t answer the phone surely and say, yeah so you know we’ll be arresting you here shortly, uh you just wait.”
“The turning point in the case came from the records of cell phone towers which keep track of which cell phones are nearby.”
“Your cell phone’s always communicating with a cell tower and the cell phone companies know exactly which tower it’s communicating with. And the data showed that Ashley’s timeline, her alibi did not check out. And when we got that information that’s when we really found out, okay Ashley and Taylor never went out to this East Milton farm, family farm that Ashley was saying they went out to where they were supposedly riding horses. We knew right away very big deal.”
“The tower records instead showed her on that day about 30 miles away in the northwest part of the county.”
“And what is she doing up there?”
“Um, Detective Alverson and I um had a she had a great idea of let’s check the property appraisers website and we typed in Ashley’s maiden name which is Britt and it popped up. The first uh property record search found 2201 Brit Road and lo and behold it was uh in the cell phone tower information that we were receiving. It was right in the middle of all that data. It was a good moment. We’re like, okay we’re getting somewhere.”
“And at at that point were you pretty sure she was the one?”
“Oh certainly. Yes. Certainly.”
“We had cell towers of her lying. We had the bank records her depositing the money and we have uh surveillance footage from banks showing her depositing Taylor Wright’s checks. Checks that are signed Taylor Wright but it’s not Taylor Wright’s signatures. They’re not her handwriting.”
“But the detectives had to keep a tight lid on their suspicions because Ashley’s husband Zach was also close to people in law enforcement. A former county sheriff’s deputy.”
“In fact we didn’t tell many people here that Ashley was a suspect in the case cuz we didn’t know who what ties she had with people.”
“Now it was time to bring Ashley back in for what would be a showdown round of questioning.”
“Hi. How you been doing?”
“You know we’ve turned up some things that we don’t we don’t really know what to think at this point.”
“We knew this was our going to be our last interview because at that point we knew all the search the three simultaneous search warrants were going on at her house, at the farm, and at her family business.”
“So before we ask you any questions you must understand your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say against you can be used against you in court.”
“Detective Giggliotti played the role of the good cop, Will height the bad cop.”
“I don’t have a problem confronting people with um what I know is a lie. Someone has to play that role. I was fine with it that time.”
“Starting with the cell tower data.”
“You have the ability to plot all your phone calls for that day. But when we started plotting all the phone calls that you and Taylor were making that day, um there were some discrepancies in what you had told us. Okay? Okay. Um we know that you didn’t go to Milton when you said you went to Milton.”
“We did go to Milton.”
“Not when you said you went. You went that evening.”
“Next, Taylor writes checks. Do you know whose signature that is?”
“Says Taylor’s name but it doesn’t really look like her signature. Would you maybe wrote her name on there by chance?”
“Probably not.”
“And then finally what happened at that farm on Brit Road what were y’all doing out there at this farm we know y’all were there?”
“We picked up some um stuff that Taylor had there that me and…”
“What was there that she had stored?”
“Uh some kind of lock box that she had.”
“Why would you not tell us that originally?”
“Because she asked me not to tell anyone ever.”
“I got you. Okay.”
“Uh she seemed to get really closed off I would say. Um kind of turning away. I think she crosses her arms and her legs if I remember correctly. I think I’d actually reach over and try to break that defense down.”
“Look at me for a second. Don’t cross your legs and look at me for a second.”
“So you can tell she was definitely uncomfortable at that point.”
“What was going through your mind at that time look at me. What were you thinking about?”
“This is kind of a regular day. Regular day.”
“Exactly. If it’s so regular why would I tell us about this even if she didn’t want you to tell us about we’re working a missing person case where your friend for over a year is missing.”
“I also didn’t think it was very important to this at all.”
“The detective was having none of it.”
“Where is Taylor at? You need to tell us where she’s at.”
“I don’t know where Taylor is. I don’t have a clue.”
“So you’re the only one that was with her on this day at this farm that you did not disclose to us.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Let me tell you this. If she’s at that farm we’re going to find her because we’re executing a search warrant out there right now.”
“That’s fine but she’s not going to be there.”
“Then where is she at?”
“I don’t know where she is.”
“Where’s her body at?”
“I don’t know where she is. She’s dead.”
“She had two options. Either tell us what took place out there or asked to speak to an attorney and terminate the interview.”
“Tell us what happened.”
“I think at this point I need an attorney.”
“The detectives had no choice but to let Ashley MacArthur leave the police station. The search at the Brit Road farm had still not turned up anything.”
“About an hour or two after she walked out of this department, uh we I was on the phone with one of the supervisors out on the uh Brit Road property and uh someone yelled in the background that they had a a skull.”
“I had no question in I think either of our minds that this was most certainly going to be Taylor Wright’s remains.”
“And a tragic update out of Escambia County Florida tonight. The body of a private investigator missing for more than a month has been found.”
“The body found in a shallow grave at the Brit Road family farm covered with concrete and potting soil.”
“Hey Zach your your wife is uh she’s being arrested this evening and charged with murder.”
“What?”
“But Ashley MacArthur had not broken under the questioning, had not confessed to anything. Would there be enough evidence for a jury to convict?”
“For the record we’re here on the state of Florida versus Ashley MacArthur. Defendant is present with council, assistant State attorney is present.”
“And once again the Law and Crime Network has picked a phenomenal trial, Florida versus Ashley MacArthur.”
“But there’s cameras here. There’s camera over there. There’s microphone. This has nothing to do with you. If anyone has to sit up straight it’s me. If anyone has to put on lipstick it’s me. This is a criminal case. The defendant is charged with first-degree premeditated murder.”
“I think I’ve covered everything I think of. Miss Jensen I’m going to turn it over to you.”
“Thank your honor. May please the court. Um what you will see at the end…”
“Bridget Jensen is the chief of the homicide unit in the Escambia County District Attorney’s Office.”
“I think one of the most difficult things to overcome was Ashley herself. She was this very small, very pretty, kind of meek, quiet spoken female who’d never been in trouble. Um so from the outside looking in no one would think that she would do something like this.”
“And really what you will see in the end is that Ashley MacArthur had the motive to kill Taylor Wright: money. She had the opportunity to kill Taylor Wright. She did in fact kill Taylor Wright and then she tried to cover it up.”
“But to get to that ending we have to start at the beginning.”
“Taylor Wright withdrew $100,000 from the bank when she wasn’t supposed to. And then she was trying to hide that money from her ex-husband. And she also asked her friend, this defendant Ashley MacArthur, to help hide the money.”
“You will see the pressure that Taylor Wright was putting on Ashley MacArthur to get this money. And the reason that matters is because the money was gone. Ashley MacArthur had spent it.”
“Friday September 8th 2017 is the last day that Taylor Wright is known to be alive. She was with this defendant Ashley MacArthur and they were supposed to be going to the bank. Taylor Wright was never seen alive again.”
“Ashley MacArthur was represented by a father and son team of lawyers, Barry and John Baraset.”
“Ladies and gentlemen the jury, as you as you sit through this case you will see the evidence isn’t there. There’s reasonable doubt in this case. And that’s what I was trying to convey to them in the opening statement.”
“There will be no physical evidence introduced in this trial showing you that Ashley MacArthur had anything to do with the death of Tel Right. There will be no eyewitness testimony introducing the evidence showing you that Ashley MacArthur had anything to do with the death of Taylor Wright. There will be no murder weapon introduced into evidence that has any connection to Ashley MacArthur.”
“The first witness called by the prosecution was Taylor Wright’s ex-husband Jeff Wright, who had briefly been considered a possible suspect.”
“Were you and Taylor legally divorced?”
“Yes.”
“Essentially had to clear him. And I think if the jury didn’t hear from him it would be um probably a weakness for the state’s case.”
“Mr. Right. Did you reach out to Ashley MacArthur on Facebook?”
“I did.”
“And did you ask her um if she maybe knew where Taylor was?”
“I did.”
“And what what responses did she give you?”
“She said that she had last seen Taylor with two backpacks um significant amount of money, that Taylor was nervous about the upcoming trial.”
“The defense used Wright’s testimony as an opportunity to raise a question of whether he had a motive to harm Taylor Wright.”
“She had antagonized a lot of people and especially over the divorce and the money uh issues with her husband.”
“Fair to say that Taylor Wright was making it very very difficult for you to get this money back?”
“That is correct.”
“But MacArthur’s lawyers knew that police had established Jeff Wright’s whereabouts hundreds of miles away in North Carolina, and they knew better than to outright accuse Jeff Wright of the murder.”
“Yeah we can’t lose credibility with the jury. We can’t make it so incredible that they don’t believe us.”
“On the second day of the trial the prosecution called Taylor Wright’s girlfriend Cassandra Waller. She was nervous about making eye contact with Ashley.”
“Now do you see Ashley MacArthur in the courtroom today?”
“I do.”
“Can you please point to her and identify what she’s wearing?”
“She’s right here. She’s wearing a black outfit.”
“And then I looked at Ashley. Ashley never looked at me. Ashley was always looking down at her scribble pad.”
“Let the record reflect this witness has identified the defendant.”
“During the course of your relationship with Taylor Wright, did you ever have an opportunity to see her handwriting?”
“Yes.”
“Did she write you letters?”
“Yes.”
“Did she give you cards?”
“Yes.”
“Were you familiar with her handwriting and her signature?”
“Yes.”
“Again I’m showing you Stacy exhibit number 26. Does that look like Taylor Wright’s handwriting?”
“That is not Taylor’s handwriting or her signature or her signature.”
“But on cross-examination Cassandra Waller testified she never saw any evidence of threats by Ashley MacArthur against Taylor Wright.”
“In all the times that you saw Ashley MacArthur and Taylor Wright together um you never heard saw anything to indicate to you that Ashley MacArthur was threatening to harm Taylor Wright, causing her you know going to cause her any physical harm anything like that?”
“No.”
“And no indication that that Taylor Wright was scared of her or anything like that?”
“No.”
“The defense then raised questions about Cassandra’s own at times challenged relationship with Taylor Wright, citing the text she had sent to Taylor on the first day she was missing.”
“As those text messages show, you called her a liar.”
“I did.”
“You called her a drug user.”
“I didn’t.”
“What I was trying to point out is that Taylor had a somewhat volatile life.”
“Going back to late July 2017 you indicated to us that you received information that Taylor was having some sort of relationship with another woman over in Mississippi, correct?”
“Yes.”
“She had this secret girlfriend in Mississippi. She was known to use drugs. Just because you don’t hear from her on September 8th or 9th doesn’t mean she was murdered at that point. That was the point I was trying to make with Cassandra.”
“It’s It’s got to be clear as day that I have nothing to do with this. And the fact that they still played that it that I could have possibly been somebody for the jury that could have ruined my reputation, my professional career. They’ll throw anything and everything out there. That’s not okay.”
“Testimony would show that Ashley came from a solid middle-class family but could often be found in strip clubs and sketchy bars where her girlfriends and a bartender testified she talked the night before Taylor disappeared about killing her with an overdose of cocaine she had just purchased.”
“Did Ashley tell you either before, during, or after you went to Babes what she was going to do with the cocaine?”
“She said that she was going to put it in Taylor’s beer.”
“What did you hear Ashley say?”
“Um, that this world would be better if Taylor wasn’t here and that she wasn’t a good person. There was one time she said that she’s too small to hurt anybody. She’d just shoot him.”
“And then this the night Taylor went missing. Did you ask Ashley what she did with the cocaine then?”
“She put it in her beer and Taylor spit it out because she said it tastes sour.”
“The prosecution’s case depended heavily on Ashley’s motive: that she could not give back Taylor Wright’s money because she had already spent it on a man with whom she was having an extramarital affair, a bar owner named Brandon Bey.”
“At some point did you and Miss MacArthur start a sexual relationship?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“So I was able to trace $30,000 in cash that Ashley had used to buy her boyfriend a boat.”
“Was she paying the golf power bill at Sticks?”
“She did a couple times.”
“Um, was she buying supplies at Sam’s Club for your business?”
“Yes ma’am, she did. Okay.”
“In approximately August of 2017 did she buy you a motorcycle?”
“I’m not sure the date. Yes, she did purchase a motorcycle.”
“Okay. A purchase made a few weeks before Taylor Wright went missing.”
“How much and how often was Ashley MacArthur spending money on you?”
“Okay I’m sorry. Um I I I don’t know how to answer that to be honest with you. Okay. Pretty regular.”
“And um what did she say about her friend being missing?”
“Uh the police had took her phone or she told me that the her the girl had ran off with her husband’s money or something and just like just gone.”
“Okay. And what else did she say about finding her?”
“Uh that she told me they’ll they’ll never find that bitch. She’s gone.”
“But the defense would have its own cards to play including a video of Ashley MacArthur that would give her lawyers a surprise opening to undercut the prosecution case.”
“Hurricane Dorian now a category 2 storm strengthening this morning threatening to hit Florida as a major category 4 hurricane.”
“In the middle of the Ashley MacArthur murder trial, Pensacola came under a hurricane watch. And in the courthouse Judge Jan Sackleford urged the lawyers to speed things up.”
“So what I read in the most recent update was alarming showing Dorian on the move. You see it right there making its way through the Atlantic. As you can see this storm is just getting bigger and bigger.”
“But prosecutor Bridget Jensen was intent on playing the full 6 hours of the two police interrogations of Ashley MacArthur.”
“I think that was important because the jury gets to see Ashley MacArthur.”
“I wouldn’t think so. Like I don’t I don’t believe Taylor’s been harmed. I just I think Taylor’s doing what Taylor does.”
“If you looked at the first interview uh Ashley was almost kind of flirty, maybe a little playful with law enforcement.”
“Had she ever come on to you or…”
“Taylor asked me one time if I would have a threesome with her and some guy and I’m like ‘No thank you.'”
“Um and the second interview her demeanor was was so different. I think she knew at that point um you know she was probably caught.”
“So you’re the only one that was with her on this day at this farm that you did not disclose to us.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“She’s she’s at that farm. We’re going to find her because we’re executing a search warrant out there right now.”
“That’s fine. But she’s not going to be there.”
“So it was good I think for the jury to see um that she had lied and she got caught up in her lies and couldn’t come up with excuses fast enough.”
“Then where’s she at?”
“I don’t know where she is.”
“Where’s her body at?”
“I don’t know where she is. She’s dead though.”
“We know that. You know uh this is a perfect example of when you talk to law enforcement too much whether you’re guilty or innocent it’s going to come back and hurt you.”
“And the father and son team of defense lawyers could do little to challenge much of the other prosecution’s evidence too. The gruesome photos of Taylor Wright’s body wrapped in a hammock in a shallow grave. A bullet hole in the back of her head. The testimony about the cell phone towers that put Ashley MacArthur at the crime scene.”
“You have in the cell phone records the maps that were put into evidence. Cell tower near the Brit Road farm at 12:10 p.m.”
“The forged signature on Taylor’s cashier’s check deposited in Ashley MacArthur’s bank account.”
“Taylor is missing and she is still depositing Taylor’s money.”
“And the suspicious text messages from Taylor’s phone after she was likely dead.”
“But then a video that the prosecution hoped would help clinch the case gave the defense a surprise opening. Surveillance video from a Home Depot of Ashley MacArthur buying concrete and potting soil the day after Taylor went missing. A store clerk Devonte Sims helped her make the purchase.”
“I was walking through the store and asked her ‘Did she need help?'”
“What was she looking for?”
“Uh type of concrete.”
“What type of concrete?”
“Uh she’s she just says she was… sorry. Like a fast setting concrete.”
“I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?”
“A fast setting concrete.”
“But then looking at the crime scene photos, Sims testified the textured rocky concrete on Taylor Wright’s body appeared to be different than what Ashley MacArthur bought.”
“Is the concrete that this lady purchased is it textured?”
“Uh no ma’am. It’s like a fine dust.”
“Is that, is like rocky?”
“No ma’am.”
“What’s it say?”
“No ma’am.”
“The defense was jubilant.”
“I leaned back and made a comment to my dad. Kama was just boom like I was happy you know, and I’m sure you can get the photographs. He said the concrete that Miss MacArthur bought was very fine like dust. The concrete on top of Taylor Wright’s body was very pebbly. You could see rocks in it. It was not fine like dust.”
“And then the defense set out to prove in its case that Ashley MacArthur would not have been able to lift a 50 lb bag of concrete or even Taylor Wright’s body because of a back injury she suffered eight years earlier, her mother Rhonda Britt.”
“Did you see her ever lift any heavy objects?”
“No she tried not to because um it hurt her back.”
“Have you ever seen her lift anything like a 50 lb concrete bag or anything that heavy?”
“No.”
“And is that to this day?”
“Yes.”
“I think it definitely was hard to picture how this little girl could move a dead body, but at the same time Taylor was not a big girl either. I think where there’s a will there’s a way.”
“In the end, the defense case rested mostly on the fact there was only circumstantial evidence, no fingerprints, no DNA tying Ashley MacArthur to the crime scene.”
“When you were here you were the lead investigator for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department on this investigation. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“As far as physical evidence or forensic evidence you never found any physical or forensic or trace evidence that linked Ashley MacArthur to the homicide.”
“I did not, no sir.”
“It is the state’s job to give you everything, the good, the bad, the ugly. And you heard some very unflattering information about Taylor Wright. And you may not like some of what you heard about Taylor Wright, but in this trial she is the victim. So let’s not forget that she was the 33-year-old mother of a child and she was a human being. And our laws in the great state of Florida do not classify human beings. So her life means no less than anyone else’s. And this woman sat there hour after hour in those interviews you saw, calm, cool, collected. Not one ounce of sadness or concern or worry for her friend that was missing. She was so forthcoming about all the bad things that Taylor did. But you know what she wasn’t forthcoming about, those deposits of Taylor’s money that she made and that property on Brit Road. And why, because as she sat there giggling and laughing and joking with law enforcement on September 18th, she knew that Taylor was out there on Brit Road because that’s where she murdered her and that’s where she tried to cover up her body. Ladies and gentlemen, Ashley MacArthur had the motive. Ashley MacArthur had the opportunity. Ashley MacArthur murdered Taylor Wright and then she tried to cover it up with lies, concrete, and potting soil.”
“Okay. All right ladies and gentlemen I’m going to turn it over Mr. Barry Barasa.”
“We’re here about a murder case, the most serious crime you can be charged with. She is not charged with stealing any money. She’s not charged with lying. She’s not charged with being unfaithful. That she’s not on trial for anything other than first-degree murder. They’ve got a proof that the crime occurred and they don’t have any physical evidence. They have none. There’s no DNA linking Miss MacArthur to Taylor Wright’s death. There’s no trace or scientific evidence linking her. You’ve seen enough on television. You see what happens when somebody’s traumatized, uh if they’ve done something, if they’ve killed somebody or if they’ve seen somebody kill somebody. You just don’t turn that on and off. There’s nothing to indicate anything in her demeanor through these videos that they’ve got that they put in or her clothing or her dishment that indicates that she was killing somebody or dragging somebody’s body around. There’s nothing there. And that’s strong evidence, physical evidence that you can see, not something the state is suggesting. Here’s the kicker. The concrete. You have photographs. She put one of them up on the screen, a big one, and you saw the concrete. That concrete was rough concrete. It is not the concrete that she purchased. When you consider the evidence and the burden that the state has, I ask you to do your duty in this case because there is a reasonable doubt and I ask you to return a verdict of not guilty of Miss MacArthur.”
“All right we’re back on the record. State of Florida versus Ashley MacArthur. My understanding is we have a verdict. They were out I think 4 hours. And you never know. You never know. That seems like an eternity while you’re waiting. It’s 12 people. Um you know it only takes one person to to find a hole that you know that they don’t think she’s guilty.”
“Let me talk to everybody in the audience. Somebody out there is going to be unhappy.”
“I don’t know what the verdict is. I know there are some family members and friends for Miss MacArthur and presume that there are family members and friends for Taylor Wright.”
“I was in the courtroom. I am like two pews right behind Ashley. So the jury came in and there was a lot of unknown, what’s going to happen, what’s going to be said. And this judge she she talked about making sure that everybody was going to control their emotions when the verdict was read. And and I was afraid. I I had no clue what was going to happen at all.”
“Mr. Fast, were y’all able to reach a verdict?”
“Okay. All I want you to do is to hand it to court security. Okay I’m going to hand it to the clerk to publish.”
“Yes ma’am. In the circuit court in in Forest Escambia County Florida. State of Florida versus Ashley Britt MacArthur. Case number 1717 CF00005844A. Verdict as to the charge. In count one, we we the jury find the defendant Ashley MacArthur guilty of first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm as charged in the indictment. So say we all. David A FA person dated August 30th 2019.”
“So I was trying to fight back all all the tears and all the emotions and everything that I had been through.”
“So we knew that if she’s convicted the judge was going to sentence her right away, which the judge judge did.”
“I need all of you to stand. And Miss MacArthur I’m going to ask you one question. Raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you’re about to give will be the truth if so say ‘I do’.”
“Okay Miss MacArthur I want to make sure that I ask you personally, do you want to say anything to the court?”
“Okay. All right then Ashley MacArthur have been having been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of your peers of first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm. I am going to adjudicate you guilty. I’m going to sentence you to life with a mandatory minimum 25 years state prison.”
“In the end justice was done and she will spend the rest of her life, she will spend the rest of her life in prison.”
“She’s gone. She’s really gone. This is done. It had been 2 years and it was finally a book closed. It was. We’re done. She did it.”
“Heat. Hey. Heat.”
“K County 911.”
“Oh I killed my boyfriend in self-defense.”
“Okay. What’s his name?”
“Ryan Carter Poston. He’s an attorney in Cincinnati.”
“We are talking about the Shaya Hubers case. How could we not? There was no doubt about who pulled the trigger. This wasn’t a ‘who done it’.”
“And I grabbed the gun and I shot him.”
“The question that was left for all of us to decide was the why. Very bizarre. Nothing like I’ve ever heard before.”
“Miss Huber’s psychological condition was seriously abnormal.”
“At any point in time when you were with Miss Hubers did you see tears?”
“No ma’am.”
“This case was about two people who never should have gotten together.”
“Ryan always put pressure on me to orgasm.”
“I thought that she was clingy. I thought she was a girlfriend that couldn’t let go.”
“He had a new love interest. That’s what sent her over the edge.”
“She was just very very upset and she was kind of saying how she was going to kill him.”
“There were only two ways he was leaving his condo that night. Either as Shaya’s boyfriend or in a body bag.”
“Okay. Your wife is in a bar.”
“He said she was under scientist.”
“This is what he’s going to tell you.”
“How to get out of that situation.”
“And I grabbed the gun.”
“Trying to find the first place to put a body.”
“No sir. The only thing they could do was kill him.”
“You want to say anything? We the jury need to find the defendant…”
“Outside of the building right now. Repeat the message and I will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you.”
“Ryan was the most laid-back easy guy you’d ever meet. He was a very good lawyer. Carried himself like a professional. It was always important to Ryan to carry yourself. Looks mattered to Ryan Poston, a young Cincinnati lawyer.”
“You always have to look professional. You have to look like a lawyer. He thought that it was important and looks mattered to his new girlfriend, Shaina Hubers, a college student across the river in Kentucky.”
“Shaina Hubers is a very talented woman. She got through school in three years. She had a scholarship in music. She had a lot going forward. He added her as a Facebook friend after he saw some photos from her from spring break.”
“Shaina is a very pretty girl. You know that’s undisputed. And he saw something that he liked looking at I guess.”
“For Shaina this relationship was everything. And having Ryan on her arm sure looked good.”
“Telling people that she was dating this 29-year-old attorney who had his own firm in Cincinnati sure sounded good.”
“They dated on and off for more than 18 months, leaving a trail of text messages that documented a very rocky, on-again, off-again obsessive relationship replete with jealousy and deceit and rage.”
“A relationship that would end with Ryan Poston dead on his apartment floor and Shaina Hubers on trial for murder.”
“I grabbed the gun and I shot him.”
“In the days leading up to his murder, Ryan was pulling away.”
“I thought that she was clingy. I thought she was a girlfriend that couldn’t let go. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He wanted her nicely to go away.”
“She communicated to her friends that she was losing him, that she thought it could be real this time.”
“We found countless instances where Shaina Hubers would show up at his apartment, somehow get in, and be laying naked on the couch when he came home from work. And Brian just wasn’t that into her. She tried everything she could from a sexual perspective to get that interest. It just wasn’t working.”
“He had finally found the strength to say he was done. Business was good. His friends were good. And he had a new love interest. That’s what sent her over the edge: a former Miss Ohio, Audrey Bolte, Ohio.”
“On the night he would die, Ryan and Audrey were supposed to go on their first date.”
“I think Shaya Hubers would have been upset if Ryan Poston was dating anybody else. But when you throw into the mix the fact that this was a beauty queen, I think that really sent her off.”
“She had downloaded a picture of Audrey when she became Miss Ohio. Downloaded that onto her computer just hours before Ryan was shot and killed.”
“It all came to a head just after 8:00 on a Friday night at Ryan Poston’s apartment in the Cincinnati suburb of Highland Heights, Kentucky.”
“County 911.”
“I I I killed my boyfriend in self-defense.”
“Did I say…”
“Okay. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. What did you kill him with?”
“A gun. A loaded gun in the house.”
“Tell me where the gun is right now.”
“The gun is in the house. I laid it on the bookshelf.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m standing about baby from his dead body.”
“Okay. Are you sure that he is dead ma’am?”
“He’s completely dead.”
“We later found out that she had called her mother first. She made the statement that she waited 15 minutes to call the police. I don’t know what would have happened had she stopped right then and called 911. He may have still had a chance.”
“I’m not a murderer. I just killed him.”
“What happened exactly? What happened?”
“He beat me and carried me out of the house. He tried… He beat me and tried to carry me out of the house and I came back in to get my things and he was right in front of me and he reached down and grabbed the gun and I grabbed it out of his hand and pulled the pulled the trigger.”
“Okay. All right. Do you need an ambulance? Have you been injured?”
“I’m not injured ma’am. I was thrown into the side of the couch.”
“Okay. Have you had a history of domestic violence with him?”
“Yes.”
“So he he slammed you into the couch but you don’t have any injuries?”
“I don’t have any injuries. I was very frightened. He He picked… He’s a lot bigger than me. He’s 6’3, 200 lb. I’m 5’8, 120. He threw me across the room and I was very startled. I was laying on the floor. Okay and I killed him.”
“And then the call ended with this astounding admission from Shaina Hubers.”
“And then because he was twitching and I knew he was going to die anyway and he was making funny noises, I shot him a couple more times to kill him because I knew he would have been…”
“I’m sorry. You said you shot him a couple more times after that?”
“Yeah.”
“How many times did you shoot him total?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay because he was twitching and you knew he was gonna die, so you shot him again to make sure he was dead because he was twitching so bad there. So you shot him instead of calling 911.”
“I told you I’m going to die anyway.”
“Hubers was not done yet. What would happen in this interview room would either clinch her guilt or prove she acted out of self-defense or was so emotionally disturbed that she could not be convicted of murder.”
“Your name is Shaina.”
“Shaya Huber.”
“The right to remain silent. Anything you say cannot use against you in a court of law.”
“After giving her Miranda she said that she wanted attorney and I pretty much quit asking her question. She started talking.”
“I don’t have any serious injuries that I could have had. And I shot him in self-defense because he’s done stuff before where I’ve hit my head on the headboard. Okay. And could have died.”
“She didn’t like to be in there by herself. She wanted someone there the whole time to hear her side of the story, to hear her talk.”
“Just really messed up that we had to get into a physical fight and that this had to happen you know and if I could go back and go over again I would rather have my head beat into the coffee table.”
“We were obviously ready to listen and wanted both sides of it. And you know at this point that we have enough information to know if there had been a past of any type of abuse. That night we didn’t know that.”
“And he had put his arm across the table and had it in my face and was screaming at me at the top of his lungs after he had thrown me around the room and was saying emotionally to me… ‘You’re a fucking hell… I fucking hate you. I hate your fucking Eastern Kentucky accent. I hate your mother. I hate I hate everything about you for what you are.'”
“At one point she said he he picked her up and threw her across the room.”
“He was throwing me around the room and then he drug her out and threw her out the door.”
“You know there’s going to be some red marking, some kind of bruising, something that would indicate there was was some struggle. There was nothing like that in this case. And her account of a struggle in the apartment did not match the crime scene photos. Nothing was disturbed on the table. The bookcase had bullets standing on end, had pipes like smoking pipes, had um books. Nothing knocked over.”
“He was like this.”
“And then Shaina began to recount her version of Ryan’s final moments.”
“Went like this. Literally that’s when I knew he was dead or close to it and twitching.”
“I was in a back room with Chief Burkenower listening to the words that she said. And I continued to find myself shocked by the harshness of her words, kind of a flippant nature.”
“I shot it once and didn’t shoot again for a while. But I was watching him die. It was so painful to watch him die and to know that I had done that. Mhm. That I just walked around the table and shot him where I knew he would die immediately.”
“Bill and I turned to each other and said, ‘Did we really just hear that? Did she really just say that?'”
“Over the years I’ve seen people who have been in shock. I’ve never had anybody tell me that someone pirouettes when they’re in shock. That someone sings when they’re in shock. That somebody snaps their fingers and says, ‘I did it,’ when they’re in shock.”
“I did. Yeah I did.”
“She was desperate to tell her story to have people hear her side. She wanted to get that all out there. And I really think in her mind Shaina thought that everybody would just buy it, that none of us were smart enough to see beyond the facade.”
“For prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass, it seemed like a slam dunk case of murder. And at first that’s just what happened.”
“Sentenced to 40 years for killing her boyfriend whose name was Ryan Poston.”
“Shaina Hubers guilty of murdering her boyfriend Ryan Poston. The jury recommends 40 years, an emotional day for the family of the man shot to death.”
“But less than a year later, a crushing blow.”
“Well it was discovered that there was a juror who um had sat on our first jury who had previously been convicted of a felony offense. Under the law in Kentucky if you have a prior felony conviction you are excluded from serving on a jury.”
“Shaina Huber’s conviction was overturned and the judge ordered a new trial.”
“There was disappointment on our part but the real struggle for us was the pain for Ryan’s family, that that closure was torn away from them, that that peace of mind was torn away from them, and that they were going to have to undo whatever healing they had done and live it all again.”
“At the Kentucky jail where she had begun serving her 40-year sentence, Shaina Hubers was jubilant. Now she had a new chance to tell her story, a new chance for freedom.”
“This was her last chance. We had no idea what direction her defense was going to go. We had no idea what she might take the stand and say. We knew all bets were off.”
“There’s a big river separating northern Kentucky from Cincinnati. You will find on juries here as opposed to possibly over the river in a bigger city that people believe in more traditional values. People expect people to conduct themselves in a certain way.”
“All rise.”
“But there would be nothing traditional in this trial.”
“Dan resid. Please be seated.”
“He versus Shane Heers, 12954.”
“Including graphic testimony about the couple’s sex life.”
“Okay. At this time the court calls upon the Commonwealth to commence opening statement.”
“Ladies and gentlemen the jury, Brian Poston was alive for each of the six shots that Shaina Hubers pumped into his body. He was alive when she shot him. Here, here, here, here, here, and here. And he was alone except for the woman standing over him, gun in hand: his murder.”
“Shane is young. She’s attractive. She’s articulate. She’s well-dressed. The jury walks in and they see this girl and they might not think looking at her that she’s capable of something like this. And that’s why it was so crucial to give them the picture of who she really is.”
“You’re going to come to see that she is jealous and she is calculated. And most of all, ladies and gentlemen, she is manipulative. Someone who would go to the ends of the earth to get her way. Because in her world, what Shaina wants, Shaina gets. And what she wanted more than anything in 2012 was Ryan Poston. There were only two ways he was leaving his condo that night, either as Shaina’s boyfriend or in a body bag.”
“For the new trial Shaina’s family hired a new lawyer.”
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. David Eldridge of Knoxville Tennessee.”
“With a new strategy that did not rely on self-defense but instead on her state of mind that night.”
“Our approach was to focus more on the extreme emotional disturbance. Kentucky’s murder statute says if you kill someone intent to kill them that it’s murder unless it’s done under extreme emotional disturbance for which there’s a reasonable cause.”
“And it was already done. It was already done.”
“For Shaina Hubers, a last chance to plead her case. If the jury believed her she could be convicted of manslaughter instead of murder and be out of prison in a few years.”
“We were running a a manslaughter defense. Yes. You’ll hear terms like borderline personality, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological outcomes and how those are expressed in her experience of behavior.”
“And Shaina Huber’s defense lawyer painted a much different, darker picture of Ryan Poston than the jury had heard from the prosecution, feeling the stress of his job the night he was killed.”
“He is in a very dark mood. He is very upset. Not too long after she arrives he lights into her verbally. Critical of everything there is to be critical of her about: her mother, her family, her education, where she’s from, her appearance. Vile comments to her, verbal assault. And you will hear about how he looked, how his eyes were frightening, scary, dark. Burst out the door and physically attacks her. Slams her arm into the door, physically attacks her. We believe the evidence would show you that Miss Hugus is not guilty of this, that she was privileged without self-protection. She was acting under extreme emotional distur.”
“The prosecution began with the disturbing evidence of the crime scene. Ryan Poston’s bloodied undershirt and testimony from the first officer on the scene, David Fornash, who said he saw no evidence of a struggle inside the apartment.”
“What would you have expected to see if there was a struggle over top of the table?”
“I would have seen things knocked off the table and knocked over on the table.”
“Was it?”
“No ma’am.”
“Was anything knocked over?”
“No ma’am.”
“One last question. At any point in time when you were with Miss Hubers did you see tears?”
“No ma’am.”
“Nothing further.”
“But for the prosecution, there was no stronger evidence than the video made of Shaina Hubers in the police station that night, played for the jury on the very first day. They saw her dancing, her singing, her admissions.”
“Yeah, I believe it.”
“Her lawyers tried to put the best face on it saying it supported the theory of emotional disturbance.”
“I think it’s just bizarre behavior brought on by the stress of what she’s gone through and her own psychological condition.”
“Even so, cuz I didn’t want to watch him die.”
“Any defense lawyer would tell you that they would just as soon client not have talked on a videotape.”
“It was already done. It was already done.”
“For 3 hours after uh the events, no defense lawyer would say that was a good idea.”
“Your honor may continue.”
“On day two the prosecution called one of Shaina’s girlfriends Dr. Christy Oiler, a dentist with whom Shaina exchanged some damning text messages about Ryan.”
“Brian’s been begging me to ask if you could do his veneers but please f them up and make him ugly so he’ll never get another girl. I hate him.”
“And what is the next exchange between yourself and Miss Hubers?”
“When I go to the shooting range with Ryan tonight I want to turn around to shoot and kill him and play like it’s an accident.”
“When the prosecution called the former Miss Ohio Audrey Bolty to testify, she described the relationship with Ryan as just developing beyond Facebook friends.”
“Did you ever meet Ryan Poston in person?”
“No.”
“Based on cyber communications, how did he strike you?”
“Funny. Funny and smart.”
“To be frank, I think that Miss Ohio was called as a slap in the face to Shaina. I think they did it to get under Shane Huber’s skin. I really do.”
“Mr. Elden please proceed with cross-examination.”
“Shaya Huber’s lawyer used the beauty queen’s testimony to show how Ryan was two-timing Shaina.”
“Do you recall that he told you that he had plans to watch the vice presidential debate with his parents?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you that he was also watching the debate with his girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Our position at trial was that he was sending a lot of mixed signals as to what his desires were uh in terms of a relationship with Shaina Hubers. She had been invited to his parents’ home, which she took as a signal that their relationship was going to move forward, and that obviously is not what he had in mind apparently.”
“And for this second trial the prosecution had a dramatic new witness, a salesperson at a local mall where Shaina had gone shopping in the hours before she shot Ryan Poston, appearing to be upset.”
“Did you learn by listening what that individual was upset about?”
“She found out her boyfriend was seeing somebody else. She was just very very upset and she was kind of saying how she was going to kill him multiple times.”
“Can you say that again please? I was talking over you.”
“Multiple times.”
“The prosecution closed its case with testimony from women who had been cellmates in jail with Shaina Hubers and said she admitted making up a story that Ryan had raped and physically abused her.”
“What did she tell you about the rape and the abuse?”
“Um, that it did not happen that night.”
“Nothing further.”
“Now Shaina Hubers and her lawyer David Eldridge had to make a big decision: should Shaina take the stand the following morning?”
“Shaina Hubers wanted to testify and that’s her absolute right to do so. But if she did, prosecutors would be ready with an aggressive cross-examination.”
“The defense of Shaina Hubers started strong with neighbors who lived in Ryan Poston’s apartment complex.”
“You raise your right hand.”
“It helped to back up Shaina’s claim that she had been abused months before by Ryan.”
“This summer she had came to my door and was crying. And so I let her in. And um she had like a red mark on her arm right in here, maybe about the size of a handprint. Okay. And I said ‘What happened?’ And she said that she had gotten into an argument with Ryan and he picked her up and threw her down in the hallway out of his condo.”
“I told her that she needed to call the police.”
“Central to the defense case was a diagnosis that Shaina Hubers, for all her talents and charm and beauty, suffered from a borderline personality disorder, a diagnosis delivered by psychologist Dr. Thomas Sheep.”
“My opinion is that at the time uh she shot Mr. post in 2012, Miss Huber’s psychological condition was seriously abnormal. And you also learned that the effects of borderline personality disorder are are most intense in the early to mid-20s. And so she was at a particularly vulnerable time in her life.”
“Okay, your next witness in order to run that defense.”
“Time call Shane Hubers.”
“It was for all practical purposes necessary for Miss Shane Hubers to testify.”
“Ma’am would you raise your right hand? You solemnly swear or affirm that the statements and testimony you give after will be truly correct?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Miss Hubers are you nervous?”
“Yes.”
“Did any sleep last night?”
“Not at all.”
“I don’t think I was surprised that Shaya testified because we knew that she had to try something different. And for the defense strategy to work, to prove she shot Ryan Poston six times because of an emotional disturbance, she had to testify about the most intimate issues in their troubled relationship, what reporters came to call the orgasm defense.”
“There were continued issues throughout the relationship about the issue of orgasm. And how did you respond to that?”
“I I tried to please Ryan to the best of my ability.”
“How so?”
“Um, he wanted to try different things and he ordered different things off the internet to achieve, to help me achieve orgasm.”
“It was something we just had to talk about. She obviously knew that would have to be a part of our discussion. It was not something that she relished by any stretch of imagination. It was not something I relished uh talking to a group of uh strangers about such personal things.”
“Was there any other thing that Mr. Poston encouraged you to do in relation to your ability to orgasm?”
“Yes sir.”
“And what was that?”
“He wanted me to obtain a G-Shot injection inside of my vagina.”
“And I’m sure nobody knows what that is. I didn’t know what it was. Um, it’s a collagen injection inside of your G-Shot inside of your body.”
“There is no doubt that they tried to imply that Ryan had been emotionally abusive to Shaina. There is no doubt that’s where they were going.”
“He screamed at me ‘You’re up person and you’re up person because you’re, you were touched when you were a little girl and that’s why that’s why you can’t orgasm and that’s why I can’t love you and that’s why no one will ever be able to love you.'”
“And then her dramatic version of what happened that night at Ryan Poston’s apartment. A violent argument over breaking up.”
“I remember trying to stand up where I was sitting on the floor and Ryan pushed me back down by my chest. He he put his hand on my chest and pushed me back down onto the floor and I was I was crying and I was hysterically cried. And I recall Ryan standing over me and grabbing the gun that was sitting on the table and pointing it at me and saying ‘I could just kill you right now and get away with it. Nobody would even know.'”
“How did you react to that?”
“I was I was shocked. I was afraid. I didn’t understand what I had done to deserve any of this.”
“Okay. Tell the legend Jill the jury what happened.”
“He set the gun back down on the table and he walked around the table and he was still, he was still talking and he was still saying hurtful things, I don’t remember exactly what. And he was standing up from the chair and he was reaching across the table and I don’t know if he was reaching for the gun or reaching for me but I was still sitting on the floor at this point in time. And I got up off the floor and I grabbed the gun and I shot him.”
“Yeah she could play a part for the jurors, for the judge, for the TV cameras. And Commonwealth attorney Michelle Snodgrass was ready for the cross-examination.”
“Well we prepped for years for Shaya Hubers to be cross-examined. We had spent seven years. Seven years we had been pouring through this material. Michelle, Cheryl, and I and Bill Burkenau knew this case so well that no matter which direction they went, I knew that we would have something to fight. And it kind of all culminates in that one moment when you actually have the ability to cross-examine the murderer.”
“It’s hard for you, isn’t it true ma’am, when things end in a way that you don’t want them to?”
“Sure. It’s, that’s difficult for me.”
“Using some of the thousands of text messages between Shaina Hubers and Ryan Poston to challenge the claims that Ryan was the sexual aggressor.”
“If you would read those messages…”
“What was the reason that you gave Mr. Poston for asking him to initiate sex with you?”
“I said I didn’t want to force myself on him anymore.”
“Was that also on there?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah. Anymore you didn’t want to have to force yourself actually judged to repeat I’m sorry.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“And another from Ryan to Shaina to show he was not the callous brute she had described.”
“What did he say, tell the jury what he said to you.”
“Um, I know you did and I really appreciate all of it but it really makes it that much more apparent to me that you should probably be pursuing a relationship with one of those guys you were telling me about a couple of weeks ago. Okay.”
“It is always, always nerve-wracking to have a client be cross-examined no matter the circumstances, especially when the questions turn to that tape of Shaina Hubers in the police interrogation room and her disturbing attempt at humor over the bullet she fired into Ryan’s face.”
“And I will never forget when she said that she gave him the nose job that he always wanted, very vain.”
“One of our last conversations we had that was good was that he wants my best friend who’s a dentist to do his veneers and wants to get a nose job. Just that kind of person. And I shot him right here. I gave him his nose job he wanted.”
“Nothing with Shaya surprises me. Any chance to be heard. I think there are true people that are sociopaths that have no concern, no empathy for anyone else. And that’s what I thought I was looking at.”
“The prosecution wanted to show she was coherent throughout, hardly crazed or out of her mind.”
“I don’t I don’t think that what I did was necessarily like completely wrong. You know, I’m not saying that my statements weren’t coherent. I’m saying my my mindset wasn’t completely coherent.”
“But there were some things throughout the course of your statement that were consistent. Okay? And seeing him twitch and it being painful for you was one of those things that was consistent and said by you over and over again.”
“I said that.”
“And because you didn’t want to watch him die, you shot him more times in your words to the point where you knew he was dead.”
“I said those things.”
“Is that similar to what people do when they see an injured animal, just stay withdrawn.”
“Your honor please disregard that question.”
“It’s nothing further your honor.”
“She treated him no better than roadkill. Shot him and put him out of his misery.”
“All rise, division 2 is now in session. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will begin closing arguments and by rule the defendant goes first.”
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have told you the truth about Shane Hubers. Good, bad, embarrassing, humiliating.”
“Certainly we wanted them to go into the jury room thinking that Shaina Hubers acted that night under an extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable cause.”
“Degrading her own selfworth. I can’t love you. No one can love you. You can’t go orgasm because you were touched as a child and no one will ever love you. At that time, physical and verbal assault on this youth. And it’s against that backdrop that they end up on opposite sides of this table with a gun on the table. Shaina’s condition combined with Mr. Poston’s actions combined to create that extreme emotional disturbance and thus she was not guilty of murder.”
“Miss not grass.”
“Yes honor.”
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. ‘He’s burning in hell and it feels good.’ Those are her words, not ours. Shane Hubers has proven herself over and over and over and over again to not be trustworthy with her actions or her words. She will lie to get what she wants. Just like what she said before, ‘I’ll go to the ends of the earth to accomplish my goal.’ She shot him in the head. What kind of a person is it that raises the gun again and aims and fires again? And if celebrating Ryan’s death isn’t enough to show you she danced that she came from evil or malicious purposes… How about this: ‘I did it, I did it.'”
“I don’t know what could sound more malicious than that. A celebration of taking another person’s life.”
“My job was to make sure that the jury knew that once we cleared out all the lies and once we focused on Shaina’s words, the crime scene, and the history in this relationship, that they would see that there was no other choice but murder.”
“The trial had lasted 10 days but the jury took only 5 hours to return a verdict.”
“Probably would have felt better if they were out longer. We were beyond nervous, sick to our stomachs. Anything other than a murder conviction would have been a devastating defeat.”
“All right. Is what you have the jury’s verdict in your hand?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Would you give that to the ballot please. Thank you. Okay. Verdict form. We the jury find the defendant Shaina Hubers guilty of murder under instruction number five. Signed by the four person, season.”
“But the real drama was yet to come. When the murder conviction came back, that was great and all, but that was just the first hurdle. Now it was time for sentencing.”
“In Kentucky when an individual was found guilty of murder they can be sentenced to 20 to 50 years or life imprisonment. That was the range that the jury was given, and prosecutors felt anything less than the 40 years she had received in the first trial would be a defeat.”
“We all agreed life was the goal this time. Not a murder conviction, not 40 years. It was life this time.”
“And prosecutors called Ryan Poston’s family, his sister and parents, to make sure the jurors understood the grief and emotion that his family still felt, even years after he was murdered.”
“Are you related to Ryan?”
“Ryan’s my brother.”
“Explain to the jury what you have with you.”
“Yes. I’m 30 years old. I don’t need to bring a teddy bear up with me. Um, this teddy bear was made by Jay’s sister. This is Ryan’s shirt.”
“Ryan poster. I’m sorry I’m not available right now. If you can leave a message and I will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you.”
“That’s it. That’s only up on the voicemail.”
“It is daunting to know that I’ve got another 30 or 40 years on this earth. God willing, I’ll have another 35 or 40 Christmases without my son. Had my grandchildren stolen from me. I will never hold my grandchildren. She has decimated my life and many other lives. Brian had a heart of gold. His his goodness literally got him killed. His kindness got him killed.”
“Understandable emotions from both sides, for the Poston family and for for her and and her mother in particular. I still remember her mother just in in agony on the stand pleading for her daughter as any parent would.”
“Hubers go ahead.”
“Shaina as I said is my only child. My child’s life has also been taken. Her family also grieves. I’m not lessening or taking away from or trying to say that I don’t understand the grief of this family, because I do. Both beautiful young people, both talented. Thank you.”
“Again it only took the jury a few hours to reach a decision.”
“And do you have the verdict form?”
“Yes.”
“Would you please give it to the bail… thank you. We the jury fix the defendant Shauna Huver’s punishment for the offense of murder at life imprisonment signed by the four person.”
“That was what this was all about. That simple word: life. When the jury came back and they read the recommended sentence of life, that simple word was a moment that I don’t think many people in this courtroom will forget. There were tears, there were hugs, and there was gratitude.”
“So was there justice? How do you get justice for a life that was taken far too early? There is no satisfaction. You think there’s some kind of relief for it. There’s no relief. This is going to sound harsh. But I hope her day today is worse than it was yesterday. And I hope tomorrow is worse than it is today. She took a friend of mine for no reason at all. There’d be no penalty severe enough for there to be justice.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today because the defendant Brooke Richardson murdered a baby that she didn’t want and never intended to keep.”
“She’s a great student. She started doing competitive cheer outside of the school.”
“Skyler has just learned she’s pregnant and she tells no one. Nobody knows about this.”
“Sometime when her mother, father, and brother were asleep, Skyler delivers a baby girl. She names her daughter Annabelle and then she buries the remains in the backyard.”
“He did give birth to a newborn infant. She caused the death of that infant. She subsequently burned the infant.”
“They were on a one-way track to get her to confess so they could take her to jail.”
“Are you going to put me in jail because of death?”
“People were ready to convict. There was false information everywhere. It was ugly.”
“She was determined to keep her secret.”
“They do an autopsy on the baby and they find out that it was living at the time of the birth, then you will go to jail.”
“I never meant to kill my baby.”
“Okay. Your your wife is in a bar.”
“He said she’s under her side.”
“This is what he’s going to tell you.”
“Got to get out of that situation.”
“And I grabbed the gun.”
“Trying to find the first place to put a body.”
“No sir. The only thing they could do was kill him.”
“You want to say anything? We the jury need to find the defendant…”
“Smalltown, USA. It’s a pretty tight-knit community. Carlisle is in the southwest corner of Ohio. It’s a town of subdivision. A lot of people that grow up in Carlisle don’t leave. Little bit of rural on the outskirts and not not really large.”
“This is where the Richardson family lives in Carlisle. Kim, son Jackson, Scott, and their daughter Skyler.”
“She’s a great student. National Junior Honor Society. She started doing competitive cheer outside of the school. It’s what she really enjoyed.”
“She’s just a peacemaker.”
“Yeah, a peacemaker.”
“By all appearances she was happy-go-lucky. But appearances, as always, can be deceiving.”
“I noticed she was constantly looking at herself in the mirror. She was counting every calorie that she ate. The day that she said she couldn’t get a pack of gum because it had five calories per piece, that really hit home. Her eating disorder defines her. We had taken her to several different places. We tried several different things. It was extremely frustrating. She did not develop at all mentally or physically. She stayed frozen in that 12-year-old body.”
“But she is a popular student and sexually active. First with a boy named Trey and then a new friend, Brandon.”
“In the spring I noticed that they were getting very close and that’s when I had encouraged her to get on the pill. That’s when I made her appointment for her to go to the doctor. I went with her. I sat in the lobby. She went back by herself. When she came out I could tell that she had been crying, but I wouldn’t say that she was horribly shaking or upset. I could just tell that she’d been crying. She kept everything a secret. She always has.”
“Skyler’s secret this time is a big one. She is 8 months pregnant, weeks away from giving birth.”
“Skyler did not want to have to deal with her mother’s wrath during her pregnancy and thought that she could get through school and then tell her mom that she was pregnant and then have a normal delivery process.”
“I absolutely had no idea. I just thought that she’d gained weight.”
“Skyler believed that she had time. Most teenagers are naive. They put out of mind what they think they can do the next day or the next week and they just live in that moment.”
“And her high school senior prom was just 9 days away.”
“Sky was very excited about prom, to be going with Brandon. First time she had had someone that she really cared about to go to prom with.”
“We always go out to a little shop in Columbus. They have a great selection of dresses. She knew she wanted red. She hadn’t had a red one before. It had a lace corset in the back.”
“He loved it. But Skyler’s mom is worried she has put on weight and might not fit in the dress.”
“I always get stressed out because if her hair is not right, you know with girls they’ve got hair, nails, makeup, the whole thing. She wasn’t exactly happy with herself, but she never is.”
“Prom night is a disaster. Supposed to be the perfect night but she’s having major cramping. And she’s even mentioned it to Brandon that she has the worst cramps she’s ever had. Skyler is in a lot of pain at prom because she’s she’s in labor and still just plows through and goes forward with it.”
“Skyler keeps her secret from everyone. And then the next night back home, Skyler makes a decision that will change her life forever.”
“Sometime when her mother, father, and brother were asleep, Skyler delivers a baby girl. She says she delivers it in the bathroom on the toilet.”
“I mean, I still can’t believe that none of us woke up.”
“She says the umbilical cord is not attached. The baby is not breathing. It doesn’t have a heartbeat.”
“I have no doubt it was a stillborn. There’s no way that we wouldn’t have heard or or the dogs wouldn’t have reacted or something.”
“And then takes the baby down the stairs, into the garage, gets a garden t… She names her daughter Annabelle and then she buries the remains in the backyard.”
“It was very, very hard knowing that she had her own private funeral for Annabelle in the backyard.”
“Much later that day, Skylar sends a text and a photo to her mother from the gym: ‘My belly is back.’ And to her boyfriend Brandon saying she’s so happy without explaining why, and she tells no one. Not her mom, not her brother who’s her best friend, not any of her girlfriends, certainly not her father. Nobody knows about this. But this would be a secret that would not keep.”
“Two months after burying baby Annabelle in her backyard, Skylar returned to the doctor’s office for more birth control pills where of course she was asked what happened to the baby.”
“Skyler Richardson had gone there for a follow-up appointment and told the doctors while she was there that she had delivered a baby that was not breathing and that she had subsequently buried her in the residence of her backyard. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office begins to investigate.”
“You can have a seat right there on the other side and we’ll come in in just a couple minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Skyler is brought by her father to the police station for questioning by detectives John Fain and Katie Gee.”
“As I was driving up there I thought there might be some other explanation or or probably something happened other than there was truly going to be the remains of a newborn infant in the backyard of the residence. I said, ‘Can I be in there with her?’ He said, ‘No she’s 18. We have to talk to her alone.’ I said, ‘Does she need an attorney?’ ‘Oh absolutely not. She’s not in any trouble.’ Naively thinking that why would a police officer lie to you, but…”
“Detective Fain begins by giving Skyler her Miranda rights.”
“Can you read this part out loud for me, this not just that last paragraph? I have read the statement of my rights and I fully understand what my rights are. I do not want a lawyer at this time and I’m willing to speak with law enforcement officers.”
“If you’re okay then just sign right sign right there.”
“There’s no way other than just to come out and say it, okay, we got a call from the doctor’s office.”
“Now Skyler knows her secret is out.”
“My parents are going to kill me. I didn’t like want to tell them. I didn’t like want to tell them at all. I still don’t really want to tell them but now they’re going to know.”
“Without prompting, she says she did not harm her baby, something she will repeat more than a dozen times.”
“I didn’t kill the doll.”
“Oh we’re we’re we’re not we’re not saying anything like that. That’s not why you’re here today. We’re not saying that. Um did you say her okay. It was a girl.”
“What do you do then?”
“I stayed there with her for a little bit. I tried to see if maybe she’d wake up but I had to bury her. And I think that’s… Am I going to be in trouble for that?”
“I know it wasn’t for trying to see if she could breathe and not bury her. Why do you decide you have to bury her?”
“Cuz I couldn’t tell anybody.”
“Cuz you hadn’t told anybody and you still didn’t want to tell anybody.”
“Really bad. I didn’t. I love. I didn’t. It’s just. It’s not for us today.”
“Are you going to put me in jail because of that?”
“No I’m I’m not. That’s not why I’m here today to try to put you in jail. We’re still just trying to find out what happened. Okay. Did you know where you would bury her?”
“I just want to bury her in my back. You are so big about flowers.”
“Okay, at this point had no idea what was going on.”
“Can I talk to my parents?”
“Um in just a minute I… But I’ve got to sit down just real quick.”
“And honey, you’re just just take a deep breath. Okay I’m going to stay in here with you. Okay.”
“Detective Bane finally comes out and tells us sort of a a synopsis of what happens. We’re in shock. I just checked out. I couldn’t feel my body. I have very little memory of what transpired.”
“Just be honest. What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay I’m in here observing jail.”
“No no no no. You’re not going to jail. Say no. No no no. And I’m not going to jail. Just relax. Okay? Listen. Listen. Just relax. Okay.”
“I don’t want to go to jail.”
“I know you don’t. Just relax.”
“I don’t have to go to jail.”
“Don’t worry. Listen, I understand that you’re that you’re sorry and I understand that you’re upset and I understand that you didn’t want this to happen. Okay, just take some deep breaths, okay, things will be okay.”
“I don’t have to go to jail.”
“You’re not going to jail. Okay, we’re not taking you to jail today. You’re not going to jail. Okay, so just…”
“What’s the worst that’s going to happen to him?”
“Honey I don’t know. This isn’t my case. Okay he’s talking. He just wants to get some things straightened up so that we can figure out exactly what happened.”
“Are you being 100% honest with him?”
“Okay I just want everybody to believe me cuz I don’t want to be in trouble.”
“I understand. He says you can go back and talk to her. Doesn’t tell us that we’re on camera being recorded.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Mommy.”
“I’m sorry. You should have just told her. Like the worst thing I know. Kids get pregnant every day. Pregnancy is not the end of the world.”
“I’m so sorry. What did they tell you?”
“They just. They just. I think they want to know if I killed it myself.”
“Yeah you’ll go to jail.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Can you imagine the absolute horror that we just went through not knowing what’s going on?”
“Yeah. That’s I’m sorry.”
“No we can’t fix this. We can’t go to jail. It’s in the papers. It’s everywhere. It’s… The neighbors have already called me and I know she was telling me that they’re digging up stuff in her back.”
“You’re going to be on the news.”
“Please leave. You’re supposed to support me.”
“I didn’t.”
“Skyler, I am supportive. But I’m just saying you guys. That is wrong.”
“I know, but I didn’t kill her.”
“Skyler, if they do an autopsy on the baby and they find out that it was living at the time of the birth, then you will go to jail.”
“I know. I’m wrong.”
“The Richardson’s backyard is now a crime scene.”
“It was a nightmare. They had drones over our house. The news people camped out all night.”
“Detective Fain got a search warrant to dig up the infant’s remains, which had been decomposing for some nine weeks.”
“It was a lengthy process but we had recovered all the remains. So the coroner’s office had had time also to conduct an examination of the remains of what they had left. And the county coroner reports to the detectives that a forensic anthropologist observed charring on Annabelle’s bones, suggesting a more sinister motive.”
“I said ‘How certain is she?’ He said ‘She is absolutely and 100% certain that these bones were burned.’ It is the turning point in the case, and Skyler is brought back for what would be a pivotal round of questioning.”
“I was told it’s only going to be a few minutes. Kevin and I are sitting outside with Detective Brandy Carter joining Fain for the session.”
“And I’m just going to be honest. I I don’t know how to say it any other way than we know there was more that happened, okay, than what you and I talked about the other day.”
“Skyler’s lawyer Charles Richtors: ‘Skyler holds the hand of the female officers in the room. She did not have a lawyer. Her mom and dad weren’t present. And she frankly thought that the police were there to help her.'”
“And under questioning, Skylar is about to admit something she had repeatedly denied before, that the baby was born alive.”
“You knew I didn’t get the truth. And um you still had to carry that, you know, carry that weight with you. I am so sorry. Just… Is it possible that she maybe breathed a little bit like maybe you know before maybe…”
“Okay. What do you do with her?”
“I put her in the towel.”
“Okay. Do you feel like she was breathing when you were holding her and you held her two times cuz I know it’s okay. It’s okay. You can’t. It’s okay. You were trying. Okay. Okay.”
“When she just interjects out of the blue, ‘I think I might have killed her. I squeezed her too tight.’ Detective Carter and I were a little bit taken back by that because we hadn’t asked her that, but she just offered that up on her own.”
“What’s going through my head right at that moment is that she admitted to killing her baby. And the detectives seek to leave no room for doubt.”
“I scarred. I like so hard. I’m just like I just want her to go. Maybe that’s when when she died, be here.”
“It seemed now like I was speaking with someone who had done the crime that we were there for and was guilty and knew they were they were guilty. So now I know I’m going to ask questions about signs of life.”
“Did you hear anything like little gurgle sounds, you know?”
“I don’t make a a gurgle sound.”
“I asked about gurgling which was a word I introduced. Skyler had not used that word herself but it soon became Skyler’s word. So she landed a noise.”
“Big noise what? What kind of noise?”
“Maybe a little noise. A girl but I didn’t know if it was something else like… And then I didn’t hear another one.”
“So how you know the baby was alive just a little bit?”
“The Annabelle was alive a little bit. I saw her arm maybe a little bit moving on.”
“They had what they needed. Skyler had admitted to maybe accidentally killing her baby.”
“I know at this point there’s going to be an arrest that day.”
“She did give birth to a newborn infant. He caused the death of that infant. She subsequently burned the infant and buried the infant in the backyard of her own residence.”
“But the prosecutors and detectives were about to learn there would be a serious problem with what happened inside this interrogation room. This case was a false confession.”
“Good morning everybody and welcome to Law and Crime. 20-year-old Brooke Skyler Richardson is facing aggravated murder, manslaughter, child endangerment, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse charges in connection with the death of her baby Annabelle.”
“It became a news media feeding frenzy known as the case of the high school cheerleader baby killer.”
“So you’re describing a spoiled self-entitled teenager who was more worried about vanity than keeping the life of a baby alive? That sounds really horrible. Those are your words.”
“It took the life out of Skyler to hear those people say all those horrible things about her she knew wasn’t true. She knew wasn’t true.”
“And much of the public outrage grew out of the allegation that Skyler Richardson had burned the remains of her baby daughter.”
“That’s when we find out how bad this has gotten. The details were so horrific. Did she not just kill her infant, but she burned the remains.”
“The burning issue is what caused the prosecutor to indict Skyler for an aggravated murder.”
“And again, it was something that Skylar seems to admit in her second interrogation with detectives Fain and Carter after first repeatedly denying anything to do with burning.”
“Tell me about the fire.”
“What fire?”
“It seemed to be a genuinely surprised reaction where we asked about the fire.”
“There’s some evidence to show that there was some some burning on her.”
“You burn her?”
“I polish on anything. I didn’t burn her. My dad has lots of bonfires, but I didn’t burn her.”
“There was some some charring and stuff on some of her bones.”
“So I didn’t burn her.”
“Are you sure?”
“I swear to you. That I’m sure. That I sure. I’m sure of.”
“Clearly when they said something to her about burning, she had no idea what they were talking about.”
“Skyler was sobbing almost uncontrollably and the detectives continued to press her on the burning because just before they began the interrogation, the county coroner had told Lieutenant Fain that was the finding of their forensic anthropologist Dr. Elizabeth Murray.”
“He met us there and were in the hallway just outside the door and he just wanted to make sure we were certain and clear on the information that the baby’s remains had been set on fire. So the doctors know that there was there was fire of some sort or some kind of burning. Um they they know for certain. So now that I know that I have that, I’m going to be more direct with questions about the fire. And yes I am looking to get an admission on that part.”
“There’s still a lot more that we don’t know that we just want. You’re so close. Just give us all the truth.”
“Giving you all the truth I told you about.”
“Detective Carter said something about cremating her. Did you possibly try to cremate her?”
“So I I wonder if maybe it just was one of those things where you just thought, well maybe I can do this and cuz I think like a cremation, like I’m going to I’m going to have some actions that I can keep of my daughter and keep them.”
“At one point Skyler finally said, ‘I think I might have tried to cremate her a little bit I guess.'”
“Where’d you put her, no no I mean like before the lighter. Where was she okay. And then grab the shovel. Okay. Okay. So was she. So you’re holding her and then you grab the shovel and the lighter, was it like one of those camping lighters or was it just like a cigarette lighter like a clicker with a long thing like one? Okay. So where do you take her to try to cremate her?”
“You think, trying to remember like where she was in there in the hole. So you dug the hole first. Okay. And then you put her in the hole I guess.”
“Part of the remains like did you start like at the the bottom, at the top it’s. It is what it is. You can’t change it Skyler. You’re just scared of Mr. President. You are telling us what happened. Nothing’s going to change what happened. Okay. But your intention was to try to preor. So what part did you try to light?”
“We were relentless for lack of a better word during that second interview. We asked over and over until she admitted to the fire.”
“How big would you describe the fire? Would you say Dave, would you say small, was it tall, was how like…”
“Yeah. How far up did it go like was it like shin like you know if you want to use like your form was it like this far up, was it this far up, do you know how far up the the thigh went?”
“Perfect. Okay. What about to her like chest area stomach? You did it. I tried to get it out. What made you decide you wanted to get it out?”
“She moved.”
“There was only one problem with this tearful confession of a burning baby. As detectives would later learn, during the time in between the arrest and this trial, Dr. Murray recanted her initial observation. She no longer saw burning.”
“Many months later when she takes her time she admits her mistake, but it was too late. The prosecutor already indicted Skylar for aggravated murder.”
“I remember being completely dumbfounded because one thing about the forensic pathologists and scientists, they work in certainties. I was shocked at how that kind of mistake could be made.”
“Under aggressive questioning Skyler Richardson had confessed to something that the doctor no longer said had happened. And without Dr. Murray allegedly being so certain, we never would have done that. I thought this could blow this case for us and at a minimum make it an uphill battle for the prosecutors.”
“Yet even with serious questions about whether Skyler Richardson had been coerced into making a false confession, prosecutors were confident they had the evidence to convict her at trial.”
“All right. Remain seated. Case number 2017 CR 33292. We are now going to hear the opening statements. Mr. Kip you may proceed.”
“Steve Nitman is the first assistant prosecutor in Warren County.”
“Ladies and gentlemen we are here today because the defendant Brooke Richardson murdered a baby that she didn’t want and never intended to keep. She continued to lie and conceal this pregnancy because no one was ever going to find out about the truth of her pregnancy. She didn’t start prenatal care. She didn’t look at baby clothes, cribs, diapers, bottles, and she didn’t research how to give her child up for adoption. She did nothing.”
“And Nippon told the jurors they should accept Skyler’s words from the interrogation as the truth of what happened.”
“During this interview Brooke admitted the following, that her daughter was alive for approximately 5 minutes. She saw her daughter’s arms moving a little: ‘I saw her arms maybe a little bit.’ Heard her gurgle and heard her cry: ‘A noise.’ ‘What what kind of noise?’ ‘Maybe a little noise.’ And just hours after putting her daughter in the ground she documented her feelings about exactly what was going through her head at that time: ‘I’m literally speechless with how happy I am.'”
“We were there for every minute of it. It was very difficult to to listen to him portray her in the worst possible manner. It was just horrible.”
“All right Mr. Rickers you may proceed.”
“This case comes down ultimately to the interrogations. Whether or not the police put words in Skyler’s mouth, whether or not the statements Skyler made were true or possible. Now what is not possible is a child catching on fire by touching it with a lighter. It is not possible. Babies are 80% water.”
“And Rickers tells the jury about someone who will not be testifying at the trial, the forensic anthropologist who mistakenly told police the baby’s remains had been burned.”
“Her name is Dr. Murray and you’re not going to hear from her. They’re not going to call her to the stand. Dr. Murray rushes. She admits that she rushes. She says the bones are burned. The bones are charred. This doctor many weeks later said, ‘I was wrong.’ She told the prosecutor’s office, ‘I was wrong.’ She said ‘I ain’t going to lie to them and I ain’t going to lie for them.’ This case is about a rush to judgment and it’s all about that second interrogation. It’s the whole case. Now they suggest Skyler hit her pregnancy because she is evil, because she had this sinister premeditated plan to kill a child. Skyler was a gentle loving kind individual who had problems, would not hurt an insect let alone being mean to a human being or a murder.”
“When the prosecution called Skylar’s boyfriend Brandon to testify he invoked an Ohio law that courtroom cameras could not show his face.”
“I want to direct your attention to May 7th at 10:40:54 a.m. And would you agree that’s you saying ‘good morning beautiful babe’?”
“Yes.”
“And she responds back ‘good morning my amazing boy’.”
“Yeah.”
“When she responded back ‘good morning my amazing boy’ at 10:42 a.m., did you know that she had just buried a baby several hours prior?”
“No.”
“And her response to you at 11:45:11 on May 7th is ‘I’ll tell you all about it later but last night was just like the worst ever. And I didn’t go to sleep till 5:30 but I feel so much better this morning. I’m happy.’ Did you have any idea at that time what she was referring to when she said it was the worst night ever?”
“No.”
“At some point you did start questioning her about who the father was. Do you recall that and she responded back ‘That guy Trey I used to date who I never talk about. I’m so sorry for lying and for not telling you in the first place. I am so sorry. Please forgive me eventually. I’m so sorry.'”
“At your age it had to have been pretty hard learning everything that was going on and knowing that all of that had been kept from you.”
“Yeah.”
“In the end the outcome of the case would come down to the interrogation of Skyler Richardson and the testimony of the detective who led the questioning.”
“Sir would you please state your name?”
“John Fain.”
“Spelling of the last name is F A I N E.”
“I’m retired now but it it’s a case I will definitely never never forget.”
“Detective Fang would testify for two days about the interrogation trying to defend and explain the techniques he used.”
“Sir there were several times in that interview where you told her that you didn’t believe that she purposely killed her baby. Do you remember hearing that?”
“Yes I do.”
“‘I think I can speak for both of us. I don’t think you killed her.’ Why were you saying that?”
“Um we’re at the part of the interview where I I felt like and was pretty certain she was getting closer to confessing and telling us more of the truth but just getting her to be comfortable enough to tell the truth. Okay. I felt like in the end we treated Skyler the exact same way I would hope if it was one of my children they were treated if they were being questioned like that.”
“But that’s not how Skylar’s lawyer Charles Rickers saw it. Not at all.”
“Good morning. And the focus is very tight on that second interrogation session in which Skylar confesses to giving birth to a live baby and then burning the remains. I agree that she initially and and several times denied that.”
“Yes.”
“And ultimately she was broken down and she said uh she tried to cremate Annabelle just a little bit. Right. Uh can you define broken down?”
“Well do you agree that you and Detective Carter were pretending that the main purpose of your interrogation of her was to help get Annabelle’s remains back to her family for a proper burial? ‘And I think about your dad already contacting me asking could he have her remains so you guys can do a burial. And I feel awful but none of that can happen because the investigation just keeps going and going because we don’t have the truth yet.’ Would I agree that that was my main purpose, that that’s what you led Skyler to believe?”
“I I know we alluded to that. I I can’t say I necessarily agree that that was we made it clear to her that that was our main purpose but that was certainly one of the things that we hope we would be able to accomplish.”
“The word cremate was used multiple times by you and Detective Carter before Skyler gave you the word back. Is that correct?”
“She… Yes the word was used by all three of us. Yes.”
“‘So where do you take her to try to cremate her?’ ‘But your intention was to try to cremate.’ ‘So I wondered well maybe she was going to try to cremate her.'”
“And you and Detective Carter used that theme cremation multiple times before she used that word. Is that correct?”
“No I I guess I wouldn’t say used a theme. The the word was used but I’m I’m not sure what you mean by creating a theme. I I guess I don’t feel like I had a theme that I was trying to create but yes I will agree I used that word several times as well as Detective Carter.”
“After you started to talk about uh this supposed cremation um you you talked about needing to put out this fire correct, you remember that?”
“Yes sir.”
“‘What about someone seeing it, were you worried about someone seeing a fire back there at that time of the night, you wondered if you’d need water to put out the fire right, are you sure you didn’t use anything any water?'”
“Yes sir.”
“Lieutenant Fain, babies are 80% water are they not?”
“I do not know the exact percentage but it sounds accurate.”
“But I know at least 75, more than adults.”
“Yes sir.”
“Unlike a number of false confessions we had something in this case that we could prove was scientifically impossible.”
“But like the fire uh issue you and Detective Carter refused to accept that Annabelle was dead upon delivery. Is that true, refused to accept that she was dead upon birth?”
“Yeah. You denied Skyler those statements that she had repeatedly made 29 plus times.”
“Um we we don’t refuse or or accept. We’re we’re there merely as an investigators. And as we all saw, even her parents who’ve known her for 18 years, he said they have trouble telling when she’s lying or not because she does so much.”
“All eyes in the courtroom are now on Skyler. Was she a practiced liar or a confused teenager up against a pair of skilled interrogators?”
“If you’re convicted of the highest, the most severe count in this particular case, the judge has no ability to do anything but sentence you to life in prison.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, shortly after murdering her daughter and placing her lifeless body in the dirt behind their home, Brooke Richardson sent two elated text messages to her mother that both contain the phrase ‘My belly is back.’ ‘My belly is back.’ Ladies and gentlemen, that belly was her child. That belly was her daughter. A daughter with fingers and toes, with hair on her head. There’s only one reason that you wouldn’t ask for help at that point. Only one reason you would force yourself to give birth in silence. And that’s because that child was never going to see the light of day. Any mother in that situation if they believe that their baby is in trouble, if they believe that their baby is in danger, would be begging for help. What does Brooke do? Nothing. If you want to know how she truly felt about her daughter after just putting her in the ground, what was her reaction before she was ever charged, before she ever spoke with the police, back when she thought she got away with everything, how did she feel? ‘I’m literally speechless with how happy I am.'”
“We were very worried that Skylar would deteriorate throughout the trial process. Just the mere stress of the situation. She would just check out. She made a conscious effort not to to show that was the… that Charlie, they told her you know you just need to keep your head up, look straight ahead. And she did her damnedest to do it.”
“Her lawyer Charles Rickers now asking the jury to consider why the prosecution stuck by its story that the baby had been burned.”
“Why’d they do it? Why would they come in here and tell all of us that this cremation and fire should be trusted? Why’d they do it if they knew they know. They know it’s not possible. We all know. Our common sense tells us it’s not possible. Science tells us it’s not possible because they know that if you have reason to doubt what Skyler said about cremation and burning then you have reason to doubt the other things she said that the detectives told her to say about signs of life. Well we know in this case the odds are actually zero that you can light a baby or a human being on fire with a lighter, that it is impossible. If you have reason to doubt the burning you have reason to doubt the signs of life.”
“That addressed the most serious counts: aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment. The fourth count for the jury to decide was abuse of a corpse. And it is still a very serious felon. A conviction on that would label Skyler a felon.”
“Women who kill their children, we’ve read about it, we’ve heard about it, throw them in dumpsters. They try to distance themselves from the body, from weighing trash cans like like towels. Skyler named her child. She put her in a grave site that she could see from her bedroom window and kept her close, put flowers on her grave and marked the grave. You have to fight for Skyler. And this is the hardest part of any case. And that’s passing the burden of Skylar on you. I trust you’ll find your doctor.”
“The jury of seven women and five men begin their deliberations just before noon.”
“When you’re waiting for a verdict there is no way to properly prepare anyone for that feeling. It is the most intense moment of your life. She’s either going to prison for the rest of her life or she’s going home.”
“The jury deliberates 4 hours.”
“I think we were all shocked by how quickly it came back. Families start piling in the gallery.”
“Has the jury reached a verdict in the case?”
“We have.”
“The first count is the most serious, aggravated murder.”
“Would the defendant please rise? With regard to count one, we the jury in the above caption case find the defendant Brook Skyler Richardson not guilty of the offense of aggravated murder.”
“We the jury in the above caption case do by hereby find the defendant Brook Skyler Richardson not guilty of the offense of involuntary manslaughter.”
“We the jury find the defendant Brook Skyler Richardson not guilty of child endangerment. It does say we further find the defendant did not cause serious physical harm to the alleged victim, but the uh that finding is not necessary as a matter of law.”
“Verdict form number four: We the jury in the above caption case find the defendant Brook Skyler Richardson guilty of the offense of abuse of a corpse.”
“It is the least serious of the four counts against her.”
“She knew what she had done was wrong, but she knew she was not guilty of the other charges. She could breathe again.”
“If I could describe my feeling after the verdict in one word it would be relieved. I was just so happy for Skyler. I just can’t imagine what she was going through facing potential life in prison.”
“But she still faced sentencing for the abuse of a corpse charge, with a potential of up to 3 years in prison.”
“I think justice was served with respect to I think our system works.”
“Recess.”
“The jury has a job to do. It it’s certainly not an easy job especially with an 18-year-old girl facing 25 years to life in prison. The prosecution had a tough task. I believe she got a fair trial.”
“The next day facing the prospect of going to prison, Skyler Richardson decides she will speak publicly for the first and only time.”
“Thank you your honor. I would do anything and above that you ask and I understand. And I just wanted to say how sorry I was. I can sometimes be selfish, but I would like to think that I’ve become better in the knowledge that I’ve upset everyone and hurt so many people with what I’ve done. And I’m forever sorry. And I I’m so sorry. I I’m really really sorry and I understand and thank you.”
“You know I have a daughter about your age Miss Richardson and I have a granddaughter about the age that Annabelle would be right now. In all of this mess that we have with this case, I think what often gets overlooked uh Ms Richardson is just how precious life is. Your life, Annabelle’s life. Life is precious and it should be protected and it should be guarded in all respects. And I have reviewed all of the expert reports in this case, I listen to the experts’ testimony. I firmly believe Miss Richardson, in fact I know in my heart that if you would have made different decisions in this case, Annabelle would be here today. And I know that might be difficult for you to hear, but I think that your choices before birth, during birth, and after uh show a grotesque disregard uh for life.”
“But after the harsh lecture, a light sentence.”
“I’m going to place you on three years of basic supervision which means that you were going to be going home today.”
“But there was one more decision for the judge to make.”
“The Richardson family would like to bring closure um for Annabelle and give her an internal resting place. Uh so we would request that you give the Richardson family uh Annabelle.”
“Mr. Richardson do I have your word that those remains are going to be buried properly?”
“Absolutely sir.”
“I am going to order that the uh remains of Annabelle be released uh to the Richardson family. I am going to hold Mr. Richardson to the promise that he made here today. And if he does not keep that promise he will answer to me in that regard. Good luck to you. We are in recent. Thank you.”
“Skyler Richardson has now enrolled in college and is receiving treatment for her eating disorder. She and Brandon are no longer a couple.”
“The remains of Annabelle Grace Richardson are buried in a cemetery a few miles away from the Richardson home.”
“Skyler is a regular visitor, making sure there are always fresh flowers on the grave.”
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
