Ohio Cheerleader Skylar Richardson is Released from Probation Two Years Early After Being Cleared of Murdering Her Newborn Baby

Skylar Richardson pictured in court on Tuesday as a judge relieved her of the remaining two years of her probation

Ohio cheerleader Skylar Richardson has been relieved of probation two years early after pleading with a judge that she wanted to be ‘normal again’. 

In May 2017, Skylar – then 18 – gave birth in her parents’ home in secret after concealing her pregnancy. She then buried the baby in their backyard and told no one about it until being confronted by a doctor who said they knew she had given birth after examining her.

She was charged with murder and manslaughter and prosecutors claimed she’d mutilated the baby’s corpse.  The teenager was convicted in September 2019 of abuse of a corpse but was cleared of the most serious charges.

She was sentenced to three years of basic supervision. Now 21, she has spent the last year working in the offices of her trial lawyers.

A judge on Tuesday terminated the remainder of her sentence, saying: ‘There is no reason for me to invest the time and resources of my probation department in supervising you.’

Judge Donald Oda II on Tuesday said there was ‘no reason’ for her to continue to be supervised

She told the court how sorry she was first.

‘I’m working to get that better, I know it has been a short amount of time and I understand that it doesn’t seem like a lot at all, but in that year and two months I have been, you can say, I show remorse and I feel a lot of things, but it’s hard to show.

‘I suffer a lot in silence and I do show remorse and I am very sorry,’ she said.

On Tuesday, the baby’s paternal grandmother asked the judge not to lessen Skylar’s sentence.

Trey, the baby’s father, was not present.

The teenager took this selfie hours after giving birth in secret after going to the gym in May 2017

Skylar said it was ‘horrible’ to have to look at photographs of her daughter’s skeletal remains on a ‘screen’ during the trial. These are the remains that investigators uncovered from her backyard

The baby’s paternal grandmother, Tracy Johnson, also spoke at the hearing. She asked that Skylar not have her probation cut

‘I don’t hate you. You probably think I do but I don’t. When I first told Trey about the hearing, the first thing he said to me was very telling.

“Is it the same judge? If it is, what’s the point in fighting? He’s just going to let her off.”

‘He doesn’t believe she’s had to pay at all.

‘When she was on house arrest before the trial it was a joke. She got to leave her house throughout the day.

‘You had the option of giving her up to six months in prison and you gave her time served. I don’t think three years of probation is too much to ask.

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SOURCE: Daily Mail, Jennifer Smith