John Jefferson
Main image: Bryanna Barozzini stares at the floor during her sentencing hearing (screengrab via WSYX); Inset right: Halia Culbertson (Obituary)
Tears and enmity flowed during a tense sentencing hearing where a woman who killed a 17-year-old girl received a three-year sentence, with the possibility of early release, on Thursday morning.
Family members of Halia Culbertson, the deceased, clearly felt the punishment was incommensurate with the crime – but the at-most 36 months in prison meted out to 20-year-old Bryanna Barozzini was the most the law in Ohio allows after the court signed off on a plea deal for admitting guilt to one charge of involuntary manslaughter last month.
“Halia never got another birthday, or Christmas, or Thanksgiving; no more holidays,” her friend, MacKenzie Adrean, said, crying all the while. “But her killer got to spend every holiday last year since Halia has been killed, freely and with her family, when Halia’s family, her whole family, never gets another one. She’s forever 17, and it lives in my mind.”
On the night of March 26, 2023, Barozzini admittedly swung a knife at the victim during an altercation outside of a smoke shop in a far northeastern neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. Halia was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed from a lone stab wound soon after that.
The incident occurred at 161 Carryout, a convenience store and tobacco shop. The argument began inside and then spilled out into the parking lot, according to witnesses and surveillance footage.
The younger girl died at 12:24 a.m. the following day at the Ohio Health Riverside Medical Center. Barozzini was later found at her home in the Columbus suburb of Westerville.
Initially charged with murder in the first degree, prosecutors surprisingly dropped that count in favor of a manslaughter charge in early June. The state was prepared to go to trial on that lesser homicide charge but accepted the involuntary manslaughter plea just hours later – the day before Barozzini’s trial was slated to begin.
“It feels like a betrayal of my daughter’s memory and the justice she was promised,” Culbertson’s mother, Haley Culbertson, said in comments reported by The Columbus Dispatch. “She wished my daughter to hell. She was clearly mad. Swore on her whole family her intent, so how does she end up in the same place at the same time?”
The state seemed attuned to a recent defense filing in which Halia is painted as the aggressor in the fight.
In a sentencing memo, Barozzini’s attorney describes efforts by his client to retreat for quite some time – albeit unsuccessfully.
“After being removed, she waited for Bryanna to exit the store,” the court filing obtained by the paper reads. “She confronted Bryanna, threatening her, pushing her and finally striking her. Although Bryanna repeatedly backed away and said she did not wish to fight, Ms. Culbertson continued in her aggressive actions.”
At one point during the dispute, Halia slapped Barozzini in the face, prosecutors admitted last month. Then, the blade was swung. It connected with the victim’s neck. According to the defense, the soon-to-be-deceased girl continued attacking her unwilling killer even after she had been stabbed, belatedly noticing the blood.
Barozzini received little sympathy on Thursday.
“Nothing has scarred me so badly as losing Halia,” the victim’s sister, Kaelyn Culbertson, told the court. “How can someone be so cruel? How can someone be so vicious? Someone who was supposed to be my sister’s best friend killed her and left her to bleed out.”
The condemned woman briefly spoke – quietly and tersely telegraphing understanding and sadness about what had happened.
“I will be living with this guilt the rest of my life,” she said.
Those expressions of contrition likely fell on deaf ears.
“If anyone ever asked me what kind of people or how I would describe the Barozzinis, I’d say I can’t trust them as far as I can throw them,” Adrean continued – through tears as the object of that disdain looked down at the floor. “I wish this wasn’t what I was doing – reading a statement … I wish I was reading a speech at her wedding, seeing her raise kids, get her nursing degree she always wanted, or even living and talking to her when we get old in a nursing home.”
David Harris contributed to this report.
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