Prior to voir dire, it was stated without equivocation no formal plea deal was ever offered to her. The state said there was only informal discussion about it.
Permitted to make limited preliminary remarks to the potential jury pool, assistant prosecutor Julie outlined a series of what she termed basic facts.
She said the evidence will show that Richardson had a sexual liaison in August of 2016 with a guy she had dated for a month.
According to Kraft, she broke off with him and learned in late April of the following year that she was pregnant.
According to the state, she "burst into tears" and told the doctor she couldn't tell anyone about it.
"She did not tell her parents, her friends or the baby's father," said Kraft.
Richardson gave birth on May 7, 2017 in the middle of the night as her family slept elsewhere in her home.
"Brooke took her own daughter's life, destroyed all evidence of her birth and buried her in the back yard," Kraft said.
According to Kraft, Richardson took specific action to conceal and destroy evidence.
"Because Brooke deliberately concealed her daughter's birth and then buried her remains in the ground where they decomposed for two months during the summer of 2017, all that was left of her daughter's body were the skeletal remains," Kraft said.
Defense lawyer Charlie Rittgers characterized the case as "a massive rush to judgement."
Hearing no mention by the state of Richardson allegedly burning the baby, he blasted the prosecution.
Rittgers told potential jurors a doctor who at first thought the baby's bones were charred subsequently concluded he couldn't be certain.
"They failed to mention that in the report," Rittgers said. "Although they gave a press release about it. But, they don't have the guts to come in here right off the bat and say they were wrong about it."
The defense intends to argue that in the six days between two interrogations of Richardson, investigators shifted from an acceptance of her explanation the child was stillborn to coercing her into admitting she cremated the baby.
"And they say look, Skylar, as they hold her hand, act like they're her friend, look it would be much better if you just say you cremated your child as opposed to throwing her into the middle of a fire. And she denies the burning seventeen times in this interrogation. They didn't tell you that," stated Rittgers with emphasis.
He chided the prosecutor's office for not hitting a reset button at that point.
"They said well, Skylar said it. We'll just keep going with our own narrative. Skylar said it. They disregard all truth that does not fit into their story," Rittgers said.
It's a story with varied elements of small town drama involving teenage romance, the consequences that can spring from it and the judgements about what to do to along the way.
Richardson's defense team said her doctor mistakenly told her delivery was not imminent.
"She thinks she has two months, eight to ten weeks," said Rittgers. "She thinks she can go to prom and graduate from high school before her mother gives her angst about being pregnant. But, she delivers eleven days later."
The defense strategy once witnesses are called appears to be that Richardson panicked once the child was born much sooner than she anticipated.
Both sides acknowledge she returned to her OB/GYN group two months after giving birth in order to get a refill for her birth control pills.
That's how law enforcement became involved once a different doctor spoke with Richardson.
Kraft said she was confronted by that doctor.
"Brooke broke down and told her that she had the baby in the middle of the night and buried her in the back yard," Kraft said.
Rittgers described the encounter as helpful to the defense claim that Richardson's actions were not murderous.
"She said what happened to your baby?" Rittgers explained. "Skylar tells her. I had a stillbirth. I buried her in the back yard. Dr. Boyce is going to describe to you Skylar's reaction when she tells her that she had a stillbirth. Tears rolling down her cheeks."
The state believes evidence will show a sexual encounter with someone she had briefly dated was the starting point in a case that reached a teenage crisis level the following April when a doctor informed her she was pregnant.
Jury selection to begin for Skylar Richardson in buried baby murder case