Woman Convicted Of Killing Baby
A Montgomery County jury has found a woman guilty of suffocating a five-month-old child she was babysitting 20 years ago.
38-year-old Melissa Haskell (pictured here) of Swedesburg was convicted of third degree murder in the 1992 death of Ryan Baurley at his Upper Merion home.The County Coroner’s office ruled at the time that it was a case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as crib death. A review conducted last year of the original autopsy found bruises on the baby’s brain and larynx and alcohol in his blood.
Haskell said her ex-husband, Michael Leflar, set her up for a confession that prosecutors used, but the jury found it convincing. Prosecutors played a recording of the confession she made to her husband while the two were sitting in the parking lot at a Bridgeport Wawa store.
