A woman who killed a 17-year-old girl got a three-year sentence with the chance of early release on Thursday morning. The sentencing hearing was tense, and tears and anger were flying.
The family of the deceased, Halia Culbertson, clearly thought the punishment wasn’t fitting the crime. However, Bryanna Barozzini, 20, was given the maximum 36 months in prison that the law allows after she admitted to one charge of involuntary manslaughter last month and the court approved the plea deal.
Friends of Hali never got another birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any other holiday. Her friend MacKenzie Adrean said this while crying. “But since Halia was killed, her killer spent every holiday last year with her family, free of charge, while Halia’s family… never gets another one.” I’ll always think of her as 17 years old.
Barozzini stated that he hit the victim with a knife during a fight outside of a smoke shop in a far northeastern neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, on the night of March 26, 2023. While being taken to a nearby hospital, Halia soon died from a single stab wound.
The event took place at 161 Carryout, a tobacco shop and grocery store. Based on what witnesses and security footage show, the fight started inside and then moved to the parking lot.
The younger girl passed away at Ohio Health Riverside Medical Center at 12:24 a.m. the next day. In the end, Barozzini was found at her home in Westerville, a neighborhood of Columbus.
The person was first charged with murder in the first degree, but in early June, authorities dropped that charge in favor of a manslaughter charge. The state was ready to go to trial on that lesser murder charge, but Barozzini quickly entered a plea of involuntary manslaughter just hours later, the day before his trial was set to start.
The mother of Culbertson, Haley Culbertson, told The Columbus Dispatch, “It feels like a betrayal of my daughter’s memory and the justice she was promised.” “She told my daughter to go to hell.” It was clear she was mad. And she swore to her whole family that she would do it. So how does she end up in the same place at the same time?”
The state seemed to be aware of a new defense filing that made Halia look like the one who started the fight.
In a sentencing letter, Barozzini’s lawyer talks about how his client tried to run away for a long time but failed.
“After being taken out, she waited for Bryanna to leave the store,” the court document that the paper got says. “She went up to Bryanna and yelled at her, pushed her, and finally hit her.” Even though Bryanna kept pulling away and saying she didn’t want to fight, Ms. Culbertson kept acting aggressively.
Investigators said last month that Halia hit Barozzini in the face during the argument. After that, the blade was thrown. It made contact with the neck of the victim. The defense said that the girl who was about to die kept fighting her unwilling killer even after she had been stabbed and only then noticed the blood.
Thursday, not many people felt sorry for Barozzini.
Kaelyn Culbertson, the victim’s sister, told the court, “Having lost Halia has left me with no scars at all.” “How could someone be so mean?” How could someone be so mean? My sister was killed and left to bleed out by someone who was meant to be her best friend.
The woman on death row spoke for a short time, and her short, quiet words showed that she understood what had happened and was sad about it.
She said, “I will feel guilty for the rest of my life.”
Most likely, those words of regret didn’t get through.
Adrian went on, crying as the person she was talking about looked down at the floor. “If anyone ever asked me what kind of people or how I would describe the Barozzinis, I would say I can’t trust them as far as I can throw them.” “I wished I wasn’t reading a statement right now…” If only I could read a speech at her wedding, watch her raise her kids, and see her get the nursing degree she’s always wanted. I wish I could even live with her and talk to her with age in a nursing home.