A Cody woman who recklessly caused a toddler’s death in 2021 must continue to serve a lifelong prison sentence, as the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed her conviction and rejected her appeal on Friday.

Jurors found Carolyn Aune guilty of first-degree murder at a trial last year. The panel determined that Aune caused the death of her boyfriend’s young daughter by failing to get the toddler desperately needed medical care. Aune’s boyfriend, Moshe Williams, faced similar charges in connection with his daughter’s death, but he was acquitted at a separate trial.

Medical experts concluded that the child, 2-year-old Paisleigh Williams, had suffered a “gut punch” or some other forceful blow that severed her intestines. Doctors said Paisleigh likely would have survived if she’d been promptly taken to a hospital. However, by the time Williams brought his daughter to Cody Regional Health on March 27, 2021, it was too late; the delay in care led to sepsis, organ failure and, ultimately, her death, a coroner found.

Williams, 35, and Aune, 32, both told police they had no idea how the child had been injured. Then at trial, Aune changed her story, saying she’d initially lied and that she’d actually watched Williams stomp on Paisleigh’s stomach. As for why she didn’t seek help for the child, Aune contended that she was scared of Williams and didn’t realize the extent of the injuries.

Aune’s account was rejected by prosecutors, who contended she was the one who physically injured Paisleigh. Jurors acquitted Aune of the physical abuse, but found she recklessly inflicted a fatal injury by failing to get the child needed medical care.

Arguing over infliction

As she did ahead of and during the trial, Aune argued on appeal that failing to do something doesn’t amount to “inflicting” an injury.

“She acted recklessly by not getting help, but she didn’t cause the physical injury in this case,” Kirk Morgan, the chief appellate counsel with the Wyoming public defender’s office, argued to the Wyoming Supreme Court in September. “And there’s a distinction.”

Morgan and other defenders allowed in a summer brief that “Ms. Aune’s inaction was condemnable and likely criminal,” suggesting their client might have committed lesser offenses of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. However, they said it didn’t amount to child abuse and, in turn, murder in the first degree and a lifelong sentence.

The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office disagreed on behalf of Park County prosecutors, saying the state’s child abuse laws cover both acts of commission and omission.

“Ms. Aune’s conduct … was the difference between a recovery room — this child waking up after surgery — and the coroner’s office, where this case ended,” Assistant Attorney General Donovan Burton argued in September.

Ultimately, the high court agreed with the state that Wyoming’s child abuse laws prohibit a broad range of conduct, including acts of omission that cause injury. In this case, the evidence showed Paisleigh was injured by the delay in medical care, Justice John Fenn wrote for the unanimous court.

“Ms. Aune testified she witnessed Mr. Williams stomp on [Paisleigh]’s abdomen with his heel. Yet she did nothing. She did not call 911, suggest Mr. Williams take [Paisleigh] to the hospital immediately, or take [Paisleigh] to the hospital herself,” Fenn wrote. Those facts, he said, could lead a jury to conclude that Aune recklessly inflicted a physical injury on Paisleigh by failing to seek care.

Disagreement on the court

At the time of oral arguments in September, a couple justices appeared to have misgivings about whether Aune’s inaction amounted to first-degree murder. Justice Kari Gray said she was hung up on whether a failure to seek care amounted to infliction.

“It’s troublesome to me that if you’re just standing by and you’re watching, that somehow you can become the inflictor,” Gray said, adding, “if you just don’t act, how can you be inflicting something?”

That question was also raised by Chief Justice Kate Fox. 

“She [Aune] neglected to get care,” Fox said, “and I’m struggling with how that equals ‘infliction.’” 

The justice said she was tripped up by the whole concept of an “act of omission,” as the phrase “seems like an oxymoron.”

Burton agreed it might be a “legal fiction,” but, he said, “when you have a duty to act and you don’t act, that failure to act is an act, under criminal law.”

The court reaffirmed that line of reasoning in last week’s decision.

Fenn, who authored the opinion, had appeared more certain at oral arguments that Aune’s actions met the criteria for child abuse and murder. The justice said he believed there was “overwhelming” evidence that took the case beyond neglect and into recklessness.

“It was knowingly withholding medical care that should have readily been apparent that was needed,” Fenn said.

Burton agreed, saying the prosecution’s contention was that the injuries to Paisleigh were so bad that, regardless of how they were caused, “everyone who was around this child, every adult, is guilty for not doing anything.”

“It was that bad,” he said.

A life sentence
and an acquittal

Aune received a term of life in prison pursuant to law, plus a since-completed three- to five-year sentence for fighting with Park County Detention deputies as she awaited trial. At her September 2023 sentencing, Aune said there were many things she wished she’d done differently, but insisted she was not guilty of murder. She also continued to blame Williams for Paisleigh’s death, saying “it’s not justice to send the wrong person away just because of how people feel about me.”

Park County prosecutors contended that Aune was the one who dealt the fatal blow to Paisleigh, but jurors found they hadn’t proven that allegation beyond a reasonable doubt and rejected it. Still, Paisleigh’s grandmother said at sentencing that she remained convinced that Aune was the one responsible, telling the defendant, “I know you did this.” The grandmother said she’d never seen Williams act that way.

Williams was tried separately in Hot Springs County and found not guilty of first-degree murder in November 2023. His defense attorneys argued he also hadn’t realized that Paisleigh was so seriously injured.

Williams, who served over two-and-a-half-years in jail while awaiting trial, has been free since the acquittal.