news-record.com

HIGH POINT (MCT) —The state has appealed a court ruling that affirmed the overturning of a murder verdict in the death of a 3-year-old child.

The N.C. Attorney General's Office on Tuesday petitioned the N.C. Supreme Court to hear the case involving Mary Elizabeth Roach of High Point.

Guilford County Superior Court Judge John O. Craig III set aside verdicts of first degree murder and felonious child abuse that a jury returned against Roach after her 2007 trial.

The N.C. Court of Appeals unanimously ruled last month that Craig was correct in ruling the state's evidence was insufficient to establish Roach was responsible for inflicting the injuries that led to Hailey Rae Resch's death on Nov. 9, 2005.

Since the Appeals Court ruling was unanimous, the state had to ask the high court to review the decision.

Assistant Attorney General Anne M. Middleton argued in the petition that the lower court didn't consider evidence supporting the state's theory that Roach, who was baby-sitting Hailey, slammed her head on a hard surface in a fit of anger over the child's misbehavior.

Middleton argued that Hailey had "acute" purple bruises on her forehead and contusions of the scalp that were inflicted "within a few minutes to an hour or two" of her death.