Sharon Kennedy, who was convicted of murdering her 10-year-old daughter, has appealed to Maine’s highest court to request a new trial, claiming that she was abused by her former husband.
Attorneys for Kennedy argue in the appeal to Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court that she was a victim of abuse by her former husband, Julio Carrillo, and as such could not have acted as an accomplice when she participated in the abuse of her daughter, Marissa Kennedy, the Bangor Daily News reported Thursday.
They also argue the Superior Court judge who heard Sharon Kennedy’s case should have suppressed the confession she gave to police, saying it was involuntary.
Sharon Kennedy wipes tears at the start of her sentencing hearing in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast on Feb. 21. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
Marissa Kennedy
Kennedy, who is 35 and was formerly known as Sharon Carrillo, was convicted in February in the 2018 murder of her daughter in Stockton Springs and sentenced to 48 years in prison.
The death was one of two murders that exposed gaps in Maine’s child welfare system and led to widespread reforms in the way the state seeks to protect vulnerable children.
Carrillo pleaded guilty to murder and is serving a 55-year sentence.
Justices on the Supreme Judicial Court will hear Kennedy’s appeal Tuesday, the newspaper reported. There is no deadline for them to decide.
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