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HIGH POINT (MCT) — The N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a judge's ruling that dismissed charges against a High Point woman found guilty in the death of a 3-year-old child she was baby-sitting.

In a unanimous opinion issued Tuesday, the court found that Guilford County Superior Court Judge John O. Craig III was correct in setting aside verdicts of first-degree murder and felonious child abuse that a jury returned against Mary Elizabeth Roach after she was tried in High Point in November 2007.

Appeals Court Judge Ann Marie Calabria ruled that the state's evidence was insufficient to establish that Roach was responsible for inflicting the injuries that led to Hailey Rae Resch's death on Nov. 9, 2005.

Judges Robert C. Hunter and Robert N. Hunter Jr. concurred. In a case that was primarily circumstantial, the state contended that Hailey suffered injuries — such as bruising on her head and hemorrhages on her brain and in her eyes — after Roach slammed her head on a hard surface in a fit of anger over the child's misbehavior. The state's evidence "makes it impossible to determine the timing of the fatal injury," Calabria wrote.

"The state cannot circumstantially establish that the injuries were intentionally inflicted by (Roach) just because the child happened to be under the exclusive care of (Roach) when death occurred. The state must prove that the injuries causing death were sustained while the victim was in the exclusive care of the defendant, and ... it failed to do so."

Craig declined to comment about the ruling because the case is pending a possible further appeal by the state.

Hailey, of Winston-Salem, was cared for by Roach at her High Point home for about three months before her death. She "appeared to be fine" when her parents left her with Roach on the morning of her death, Calabria wrote.

A state medical examiner found no significant trauma, such as broken bones or bleeding in the brain, but determined that Hailey's death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head that inflicted injuries within her brain.

The decision cited a 1984 case with similar circumstances in which the court dismissed charges against a father accused of killing his child where the evidence failed to establish the precise time the injury occurred.

It's unclear whether Tuesday's court ruling brings an end to the case.

The state could appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court, but there is no guarantee the case will be heard. Because the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruling was unanimous, the state would have to file a petition to have the high court review the case.

A spokeswoman for the N.C. Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that no decision has been made on whether to appeal. The state has 35 days to decide, and appellate attorneys will take a close look at the appeals court decision and seek input from local prosecutors in deciding whether to proceed.

"Mary Beth Roach and all who know and love her have gone through a long and terrible ordeal, but it now appears to be over after nearly four years," Roach's attorneys, Bob Boyan and Richard Tate, said in a statement. "On behalf of Mary Beth and her family, we are extremely grateful that the Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Judge Craig's decision to dismiss the state's case for lack of evidence. ... From the beginning, we have believed in Mary Beth's innocence."

Carol Resch, Hailey Resch's mother, said she thought the court would have given more weight to the jury's findings in the case.

"It's heartbreaking," she said. "We're just so surprised and disappointed."