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A Nebraska nanny accused of shaking a 4-month-old baby to death has been convicted during an emotional hearing this week that ended with an embrace between the jurors and the victim’s parents.
It took an Omaha jury four hours Tuesday to convict Sarah Cullen of child abuse resulting in death in the February 2013 killing of Ashley and Christopher Bell’s infant son, Cash.
When Cullen was arrested a year
ago in connection to Cash Bell’s death, she offered police three
different versions of events, none of which was true.
Justice for Cash: Nanny Sarah Cullen has been found guilty of shaking and dropping a 4-month-old Omaha boy, Cash Bell, and then lying about it to police
Baby
Cash was in Cullen’s care February 28, 2013, when he suffered fatal
injuries to the head. Worried about his deteriorating condition, the
baby sitter and her boyfriend rushed to the emergency room with the
dying infant.
Despite efforts to save him, the 4-month-old passed away five days later from massive head trauma.
The defendant was led out of the courtroom in tears and with her head bowed after the verdict was announced.
Tragic loss: Cash Bell was described by his parents as a having a good appetite and alert eyes
Baby Cash’s mother, who is nine months pregnant, walked out of the courtroom hand-in-hand with her husband.
With tears streaming down her face, Ashely Bell approached some of the jurors and thanked them for returning a guilty verdict.
Cullen, 25, could face up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced May 19.
Both
sides delivered their closing arguments at around noon Tuesday, after
which the case was sent to the jury panel for deliberation.
At around 4pm, the jurors delivered a guilty verdict as Ashley and Christopher Bell wept in the audience.
After
getting the go-ahead from the presiding judge, the four female members
of the panel came up to the Bells and embraced them one by one.
‘We’re so grateful,’ Ashley Bell said as she gave each juror a hug.
On February 28, 2013, reported the Omaha World Herald, Christopher Bell and his wife, Ashley, left for work leaving their perfectly healthy, cooing and giggling son in their baby sitter’s care as usual.
They’ve waited so long: A nine-month-pregnant Ashley Bell walked into an Omaha courtroom with her husband, Christopher, by her side to hear the verdict in the murder trial of their former nanny
Her fate is sealed: After hearing her guilty verdict, Cullen was led out of the courtroom in tears; she faces up to 20 years in prison
The
Bells told investigators at Douglas County Sheriff’s Office that at
about 9.15am, Mr Bell had returned to the Southwest Omaha home to pick up
a check book he had left behind.
In
the report he recalled how he had noticed his son lying face down in a
Pack-N-Play with labored breathing and so had rolled the baby onto his
back. Not wanting to disturb him, he had not picked him up.
Ms Cullen did scoop up the sleeping
baby, however, and stepped out the front door holding him as Mr Bell pulled out of the driveway to leave.
Soon after her employer’s departure,
Ms Cullen claims she became worried about the baby’s breathing and
called her boyfriend in a panic. By the time he arrived at the house,
she had already administered CPR unsuccessfully and the pair rushed to the
emergency room.
Despite a helicopter transfer to Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cash was unable to recover.
Five days later, the infant died from what the autopsy report later described as head fractures resulting in brain hemorrhage.
The infant’s blood vessels burst and blood pooled in his eyes. He was blind and likely deaf.
When the Bells were notified
by the doctors that their son had suffered irreparable brain damage,
they made the heart-rending decision to take him off the ventilator.
Emotional moment: Mrs Bell wept and thanked the jurors for their verdict after four of them came up to her and Christopher and hugged them with the judge’s permission
Over the course of several interviews,
Ms Cullen gave Chief Deputy Marty Bilek and his team, three divergent accounts of how Cash might have been injured to such an extent.
Initially, she claimed ignorance and suggested that he may have hit his head when she took him to say goodbye to Mr Bell. Later she blamed the fracture on a fall from his baby swing.
Finally, she admitted that at around 8am she had tripped on the stairs and Cash had dropped onto the tile floor.
In the course of the trial, it has emerged that the Bells hired Cullen not knowing that she had been fired from a day care center for being too rough with the children.
Cullen’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matt Miller, insisted that his client’s actions were accidental.
At one point, Miller drew shocked gasps from the audience when he suggested that Christopher Bell harmed his son when he turned him over on his stomach.
Comments (28)
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Anna,
Neverwhere, United Kingdom,
42 minutes ago
I’m not happy with this. If I were a lawyer on this case I would question whether the jury let their emotions influence their decision and request a mistrial. I worry that these four female jurors mentioned have had sympathy for the parents from the start and that would make them more likely to be biased in the parent’s favour. You have to put your own feelings and opinions aside when you serve on a jury because otherwise you will not be able to listen to the arguments from each side and form an opinion based solely on those arguments.
Bring on the red arrows but please remember that one day you might be the one who is present when a child dies through no fault of yours but your mere presence and public sympathy for the parents who have lost a child will result in a guilty verdict.
Petunia,
Timbuktu,
55 minutes ago
How in the world do you hurt a face like his? A sweet and innocent baby! And yes, they cry. Usually for one of three reasons: Dirty diaper, hunger or exhaustion. So you see to each of these things to be sure his needs are met. You don’t slam his head just because YOU, the adult, don’t know how or don’t care how to handle him.
tonilianne,
Manchester, United Kingdom,
1 hour ago
Absolutely disgraceful. Someone trusted you with the most precious thing in their world and you selfishly took it away. You don’t deserve freedom.
Flotske,
Torquay,
1 hour ago
‘Adjured’. ?????????????
Jan,
twickenham,
1 hour ago
The father rolled the baby after seeing it with laboured breathing and left the house??!!
Jan,
twickenham,
1 hour ago
The father rolled the baby after seeing it with laboured breathing and left the house??!!
michelle belle,
Alaska,
1 hour ago
That witch!! That poor defenseless baby…I’m heartbroken for him and his parents. Rip sweet angel
SPEAKTHETRUTH,
Portland,
2 hours ago
I have to wonder if the boyfriend did it, and was there all along. I’m sure she lied about calling him when the baby seemed ill. Besides, don’t people normally call 911 in a medical emergency?
Cleopatra,
Stirling,
2 hours ago
Very sad very sad… But shouldn’t you get references from former employers BEFORE you trust your precious child to someone?
My Humble Opionion….,
Weston, Fl,
2 hours ago
If she gets 20 years, she’ll be out in her early 40s….with time to still have her own child. HELL NO….SHE NEEDS AT LEAST 40 years!
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Sarah Cullen trial: Jury makes unprecedented request to hug parents of dead baby after his "manipulative" nanny, 25, is found guilty of shaking him to death
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