During the trial, prosecutors said Ms. Eastwood-Richie knew she was three months pregnant before giving birth and that she did nothing to prepare, which they say is evidence of intent. Her actions, according to prosecutors, caused the child’s death.
Joseph Fello, a Kuyahoga County medical examiner who examined the autopsy performed by a coroner years earlier, testified that the baby was not stillborn and died of “some action.”
Stephen Bradley, one of Ms. Eastwood-Ritchie’s attorneys, said in her closing remarks that Ms. Eastwood-Ritchie believed the baby was stillborn and did not “act with a specific purpose or intent to cause the death of this baby. “
Mr Bradley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night, but told WKYC moments after the verdict that he “feels that the state, frankly, does not have enough evidence to bear the burden of proof”.
During the trial, which was postponed due to the pandemic, jurors were shown graphic photos of the baby boy, taken after he was found in the woods.
Projectors said that while the exact cause of death remained unclear, they believed Ms. Eastwood-Richie killed the baby, put it in a garbage bag and left it in the woods. Mrs. Eastwood-Ritchie later married the baby’s father, Mark Ritchie. They have three adult children, the Associated Press reported.
In the summer of 1992, Ms. Eastwood-Richie was 22 years old and living with her parents and younger sister, Mr Bradley said during the trial. She was active in the local Baptist church, dating her future husband and working full time as a nanny. That fall, she found out she was pregnant.