A woman convicted in April of murdering her boyfriend’s toddler daughter is asking the judge who oversaw her jury trial to acquit her for lack of evidence and give her a new trial.
“None of the evidence shows proof of me recklessly inflicting bodily injury that then led to (the child’s) death,” wrote Carolyn Aune, who is 31 this year, in a letter to District Court Judge Bobbie Overfield. “I understand that there is a dead child and that is excruciatingly tragic.
“I am sorry she is dead, and I also agree that justice needs to be served but sending me away for my whole life … is not justice.”
Even a defendant convicted by a jury can apply for acquittal in Wyoming soon after trial. Judges are to grant these acquittals only if they’ve deemed the evidence insufficient to support a conviction.
The Park County Attorney’s Office did not file a response to Aune’s petition. But her attorney reiterated it in a motion asking the judge to hear Aune’s pleas in court.
‘Proven Innocent But Still Found Guilty’
Meanwhile, Aune’s codefendant, her former boyfriend Moshe Williams and the girl’s father, is awaiting his Oct. 30 homicide trial in the girl’s death.
Aune wrote her letter by hand in clean sloped letters on lined paper.
“I am asking for you to search within yourself for the courage to do the right thing, even though, it is extreamly (sic) unwanted by other professionals and the community,” she wrote. She referred to the deceased child by her initials as other court documents do. “I did not murder P.W.”
Aune continued: “Please think about what sending a person that was proven innocent but still found guilty away for their whole life could do to a person.”
She said she was dedicated to finding justice for the child and sending the person “who actually inflicted the injury away.”
“And its (sic) not me,” she added. “Thank you for your time.”
Jail Fight
Aune’s attorney, Elisabeth Trefonas, also asked the court to set a change-of-plea and sentencing hearing in a separate case of two counts of felony interference with officers.
Aune is accused of challenging a jail deputy when he told her to lock down in her cell. When the deputy put his open hands on her arm and shoulder to direct her to her cell, says the case affidavit, she started pushing, shoving, and trying to slap the deputy, says the affidavit.
Another deputy joined and the two put Aune on the ground, where she started to kick the second deputy, allegedly, and threatened to beat up the first while screaming “obscenities” about police.
Vomiting All Night
Police first noticed Williams’ and Aune’s case when Williams brought his daughter to the emergency room in Cody on March 27, 2021.
The girl was unresponsive, her body was covered in bruises and doctors believed she was suffering from internal bleeding, says the affidavit.
Williams said the girl had been vomiting all night.
The girl was flown to care in Colorado. Doctors had to amputate her leg. Then she died. She was 2 years old.
A forensic pathologist found that her vomiting and sickness were due to a detached bowel, likely the result of a “gut punch.”
Both Aune and Williams had denied hurting the child. Both were charged that April.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
