Tears and hostility flowed during a heated sentencing hearing on Thursday morning when a woman who killed a 17-year-old girl was sentenced to three years in prison with the option of early release. Family members of the deceased Halia Culbertson felt the punishment was insufficient for the crime, but the at-most 36-month prison sentence meted out to 20-year-old Bryanna Barozzini was the maximum allowed by Ohio law after the court approved a plea deal for admitting guilt to one charge of involuntary manslaughter last month.
“Halia never got another birthday, Christmas, or Thanksgiving; no more holidays,” her friend, MacKenzie Adrean, stated, crying the entire time. “But her killer was able to enjoy every holiday last year after Halia’s death freely and with her family, whereas Halia’s family, her entire family, will never have another. “She’s always 17 in my mind.”
On the night of March 26, 2023, Barozzini admitted to swinging a knife at the victim following a dispute outside a smoking store in Columbus’ far northeastern district. Halia was transported to a local hospital, but she died from a single stab wound soon after.
The event took place inside 161 Carryout, a convenience store and tobacco shop. According to witnesses and camera footage, the argument started inside and spread to the parking lot.
The younger girl died at 12:24 a.m. the next day at Ohio Health Riverside Medical Center. Barozzini was later discovered in her house in the Columbus suburb of Westerville.
Initially charged with first-degree murder, prosecutors shockingly withdrew the allegation in favor of manslaughter in early June. The state was ready to proceed to trial on the lesser homicide charge, but accepted the involuntary manslaughter plea mere hours later, the day before Barozzini’s trial was scheduled to begin.
“It feels like a betrayal of my daughter’s memory and the justice she was promised,” Culbertson’s mother, Haley, told The Columbus Dispatch. “She wished my daughter hell. She was angry. “She swore her intent to her entire family, so how did she end up in the same place at the same time?”
The state appeared to be aware of a recent defense file in which Halia is portrayed as the fight’s instigator.
In a sentencing memo, Barozzini’s attorney details his client’s long-term efforts to flee, which were ultimately unsuccessful.
“After being removed, she waited for Bryanna to exit the store,” the court file acquired by the tabloid states. “She confronted Bryanna, threatening, pushing, and then assaulting her. Despite Bryanna’s repeated refusal to fight, Ms. Culbertson continued her violent behavior.”
During the dispute, Halia slapped Barozzini in the face, prosecutors confessed last month. Finally, the blade was swung. It hit the victim’s neck. According to the defense, the soon-to-be-deceased girl continued to assault her unwilling killer after being stabbed, only later discovering the blood.
Barozzini elicited little sympathy on Thursday.
“Nothing has scarred me as badly as losing Halia,” Kaelyn Culbertson, the victim’s sister, told the court. “How can someone be this cruel? How could someone be so vicious? Someone who was supposed to be my sister’s best friend murdered her and abandoned her to bleed and die.”
The convicted woman spoke short, gently, and tersely, conveying understanding and sadness about what had happened.
“I will be living with this guilt the rest of my life,” she told me.
Those apologies most likely went unheard.
“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 said through tears as the object of his scorn glanced down at the floor. “I wish I wasn’t reading a statement. I wish I could read a speech at her wedding, watch her raise children, acquire the nursing degree she has always desired, or even live and talk to her in a nursing home when we are old.”