State v. Burgess

HUNTER, Judge.

Defendant appeals her conviction for felony child abuse and second-degree murder of her infant child, Cheyenne Summer Kelly (“Cheyenne”). Briefly, the evidence presented at trial tended to show that defendant, one of eight children, dropped out of high school when she was fifteen years old and pregnant. Her father died that same year. She had four children by four different men before she turned twenty-two and was once married to an older man who physically assaulted her. She abused both alcohol and cocaine. At the time of the incident, defendant lived with her boyfriend, Robbie…