A jury has convicted a lady of homicide within the loss of life of a new child little one authorities mentioned was dumped within the woods in Ohio nearly three many years in the past.
Jurors in Geauga County deliberated for just a few hours Monday earlier than reaching a verdict within the case of Gail Eastwood Ritchey, 51, of Euclid. Her bail was then revoked by the choose and he or she was arrested. A sentencing date has not been set but. She was acquitted of aggravated homicide.
Newspaper carriers discovered the physique of the new child on a rural highway in Thompson Township in March 1993, a couple of month after the kid was born.
Authorities have mentioned the toddler was dumped in woods in a rubbish bag and that animals had mutilated the physique and dragged it onto the roadway.
Neighborhood members paid for a funeral, burial and a gravestone marked "Geauga's Little one." The epitaph on the gravestone reads: "Geauga's Little one lies right here now in security – simply too late. Too late to save lots of his life. Too late to make issues proper. However not too late to show us all to like and cherish life."
The defendant was recognized because the kid's mom after a county sheriff's detective submitted DNA to a public genealogical web site, created a household tree of 1,400 relations and eventually narrowed the search to her. She was arrested in June 2019.
Protection legal professional Steven Bradley disputed a Cuyahoga County coroner's conclusion that the newborn was born alive within the toilet of a Shaker Heights house the place his consumer labored as a nanny. Bradley mentioned she put the new child in a rubbish bag and left it within the woods in Geauga County whereas driving a church group to a weekend retreat.
"She was remoted and alone," Bradley mentioned. "There was nobody to confide with. She was alone with a gaggle of individuals in her world that by no means noticed her as pregnant. Neither did Gail."
Prosecutors, nonetheless, argued that the defendant knew she was pregnant three months earlier than the start and did nothing to arrange, and so they argued that confirmed intent.
"She actually handled him like a bit of rubbish," prosecutors mentioned. "Tossed him within the woods … did not even bury him."
After the decision, Bradley mentioned he was "frankly shocked and shocked."
"I actually respect the jury's verdict, however the state frankly didn't have sufficient proof to satisfy their burden of proof," he mentioned.
The defendant, who didn't testify, later married the new child's father. They've three grownup kids. Authorities mentioned she informed investigators on the time of her arrest that she had disposed of one other toddler's physique two years previous to the start of her son.