Who Is Veronica Green Posey? New Details About The Florida Woman Who Crushed A Young Girl To Death By Sitting On Her
She just received a life sentence for the child's murder.
Instagram A Florida woman was sentenced to life in prison after she killed a young girl by sitting on her.
Veronica Green Posey, 66, sat on her young cousin, 9-year-old Dericka Lindsay, for five full minutes as a punishment. Posey weighed 320 pounds at the time and caused massive internal injuries to the girl during the 2017 incident.
Lindsay's cause of death was ruled as suffocation.
So who is Veronica Green Posey? Here's everything we know.
1. She was trying to get the girl "under control."
In October 2017, Posey was allegedly trying to her younger cousin under control when she forced her to bend over an armchair. She then sat on the young girl's back and crushed her chest.
Despite the girl's screams for help, Posey continued to set on her until she realized she was no longer moving or breathing. Posy called 911, and Lindsay was taken to Baptist Hospital.
A short time after she arrived, she was pronounced dead.
2. She had come to the home to punish Lindsay and her sister.
Prosecutors said that Posey did not live with Lindsay and her adopted parents, James and Grace Smith. The morning of the child's death, she was called over to the house because she was told Lindsay and her 8-year-old sister were misbehaving.
“Once her feet hit the floor getting out of bed, she was determined to beat these children,” Assistant Attorney Amy Shea said during the trial.
Before crushing the 9-year-old to death, she beat her with a rule and a thin pipe.
3. The girl had received beatings before she died.
This sadly wasn't the first time the child had been subjected to physical punishment at the hands of her caretakers. Lindsay had been beaten before by Posey as well as her adoptive parents.
An autopsy report revealed that there was severe bruising on the girl's buttocks and that she had received “injury, on top of injury, on top of injury." Police were called to the home multiple times in the 18 months before she died.
4. Posey's attorney said she didn't want to hurt the girl.
During the trial, Posey's defense attorney Michael Griffith denied that she ever wanted to hurt Lindsay. He said that she was only trying to help the Smiths. After she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, he said he plans to investigate her options for an appeal.
"We are very upset. We respect the jury's verdict, but we are going to request a copy of the transcript and look for any avenues of appeal," he said.
James Smith, Lindsay's adoptive father, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in her death, and her adoptive mother, Grace Smith, is still facing charges. However, she has been ruled unfit (mentally and physically) to stand trial for now.
5. Despite her home life, Lindsay was a "happy" child.
Those who knew Lindsay remember her as a bubbly girl with a big smile who was always polite and cheerful. She would remind her friends to follow the rules their parents' had set during play dates and was known for being the first friend any new kid at school would have.
Still, her home life was not a good one. Last June, Lindsay and her young sister ran away. When a police officer located them at a friends house, they cried and did not want to return to the Smiths.
"(The girls) did not give me any specific reasons as to why they did not want to go home, but just kept crying and begged us not to take them back," the report reads, also saying that the responding deputy found the girls shared a mattress that had no bedding and was stained brown. The home also had no air conditioning.
Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture, and true crime.