Nanny pleads to parents in court as she is jailed for killing baby
'If there's anything I could do to take the pain away and bring it on myself I would’: Nanny's plea to parents in court as she is jailed for killing baby
- Sarah Cullen, 25, was found guilty of shaking Cash Bell to death
- The four-month-old baby died in Omaha in February 2013
- Cullen sentenced to 70 years in prison
View
comments
Sarah Cullen, 25, was found guilty of shaking Cash Bell to death in Omaha in February 2013
A former nanny convicted of killing a baby that was in her care has been sentenced to 70 years to life in prison.
Sarah Cullen, 25, was found guilty of shaking Cash Bell to death in Omaha in February 2013.
Investigators say Cullen gave different accounts of how the baby was injured.
She will be eligible for parole after she serves 35 years and sobbed in court as she addressed Cash’s parents.
'If there's anything I could do to take the pain away and bring it on myself I would,' Cullen said.
'I'm so sorry I'll never forgive myself and never expect anyone else to either.'
The jury was not able to hear about Cullen's previous abuse of children while at previous day care jobs, but the judge was allowed to use the information for sentencing purposes.
Cash's mother, Ashley Bell, asked the judge to send Cullen to prison for life.
'A person capable of committing cold blooded murder and isn't phased doesn't deserve to get out of prison,' Bell explained in court, reported KMTV.
'We held our baby as he died in our arms. She’s completely heartless.'
It took an Omaha jury four hours to convict Cullen of child abuse resulting in death in the February 2013 killing of Ashley and Christopher Bell's infant son, Cash.
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.
Cash Bell (left), died in Omaha in February 2013. Sarah Cullen, 25, (right) was found guilty of shaking him to death. Investigators say Cullen gave different accounts of how the baby was injured
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.
RELATED ARTICLES
Parents OUTRAGED after 'baby boy's mouth was taped shut... 
'He mattered way more than I did': Mother broke her back...
Share this article
ShareMs 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.
Ashley Bell walks into an Omaha courtroom with her husband, Christopher, by her side in March
Cash's mother, Ashley Bell, asked the judge to send Cullen to prison for life
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.
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.
'A person capable of committing cold blooded murder and isn't phased doesn't deserve to get out of prison'
Cash Bell's mother Ashley
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.
Omaha World Herald reported that before the hearing was adjourned, one of the jurors approached Judge Mark Ashford with an unusual request: could they talk to Mr and Mrs Bell?
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.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2Fd36VcmxsZ36Wu6%2FFjKmjnpmUqHqxrdGepa2rXZi8tr7TZqGaoZyasW63yKWjoqaXYq%2Birthnn62lnA%3D%3D