HAILEY RAE RESCH - 3 yo (2005) - High Point NC

The N.C. Supreme Court last week ended a legal saga by declining to hear a High Point case in which a judge overturned a jury's first-degree murder verdict in the death of a 3-year-old child.Mary Elizabeth Roach has maintained her innocence since being charged with killing Hailey Rae Resch nearly five years ago. An extensive review of the case in the state court system affirmed the ruling of Superior Court Judge John O. "Joe" Craig III of High Point, who dismissed the case after he found there was insufficient evidence against Roach."Justice prevailed. It was a long time coming," said Richard Tate, one of Roach's attorneys. "Thank the Lord for judges like Joe Craig."Roach, 27, was babysitting Hailey when she found the child unresponsive after a nap on Nov. 9, 2005. An autopsy found that Hailey's death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head. In a case that was primarily circumstantial, the state contended that she suffered injuries -- such as bruising on her head and hemorrhages on her brain and in her eyes -- after Roach attacked her in a fit of anger over the child's misbehavior, slamming her head on a hard surface.Craig granted a defense counsel motion to set aside first-degree murder and felonious child abuse verdicts that a jury returned against Roach after she was tried in High Point in November 2007. The state appealed and in October 2009, the N.C. Court of Appeals unanimously ruled 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's death. The N.C. Attorney General's Office petitioned the N.C. Supreme Court to hear the case in November 2009."I still wholeheartedly think she's guilty. I just think she got away with murder. I still disagree with what the judge did," said Carol Resch, Hailey's mother, adding that she wasn't surprised the high court declined to take the case because it rarely grants petitions for discretionary review. "There's a lot of healing that still has to be done, but we've come a long way."Craig, a judge since 2002, faces no opposition in his bid for re-election to his seat next month."I do feel vindicated to some degree. I feel relieved. It was probably the toughest call I've ever had to make in my career," he said, adding that, if he had it to do over, he probably would have granted a motion from Roach's defense counsel to dismiss the case after all the evidence had been presented and before the jury began deliberations in her 2007 trial.He said he expected the jury would acquit Roach and that letting Hailey's family hear this from the jury would have brought them better closure."Of course, it didn't turn out the way I anticipated it would, so I had to step up and do what I felt was the proper thing to do, even though it was highly unusual and even though I got a lot of criticism," Craig said. "On the other hand, I got a lot of praise for having the guts and the courage to do something like that in a murder trial."