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Prosecutors described Tuesday how a former Ohio cheerleader on trial for her newborn’s murder “burst into tears” upon learning she was pregnant.

Brooke Skylar Richardson, now 20, appeared in Warren County court for jury selection. She allegedly killed her newborn daughter in May 2017 days after her high school prom.

“Upon learning she was pregnant, Brooke burst into tears and told the doctors she could not have this child and she didn’t tell anyone about being pregnant,” Warren County Assistant Prosecutor Julie Kraft said in preliminary opening statements, according to the Hamilton Journal-News.

Prosecutors claim that Richardson secretly went into labor in the “middle of the night” and didn’t tell her family — despite her parents and brother being home. She allegedly killed the newborn and buried her in her parents’ back yard in Carlisle.

“She took her daughter’s life, destroyed all evidence of her birth,” Kraft told the court.

Richardson’s doctor notified authorities in July 2017 after confronting her when she visited to get a refill for birth control, prosecutors said.

“Brooke broke down told her [doctor] she had the baby and buried her in the back yard,” Kraft said.

But Richardson’s lawyer, Charles M. Rittgers Jr., denied that she killed the baby, claiming the child was stillborn, the Hamilton Journal-News reported.

He argued that Richardson believed she had time before the child’s birth to go to prom and tell her mother.

“This is a massive rush to judgment,” Rittgers told the court.

Richardson has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. The trial is expected to last two or three weeks.

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