A Wyoming woman convicted in April of murdering 2-year-old Paisleigh Williams was sentenced to life in prison during a Tuesday, September 26, hearing in Park County District Court, according to reports.
In April, Carolyn Aune was convicted by a jury of first degree murder by recklessly inflicting physical injury on Paisleigh after she failed to get Paisleigh prompt medical care. The jury did not find she was guilty of intentionally inflicting the blunt force trauma that perforated Paisleigh’s intestines.
Aune was Paisleigh’s father’s girlfriend.
According to an affidavit filed in the case in 2021, police noticed Aune and Moshe Williams when Williams brought his 2-year-old daughter to the emergency room in Cody on March 27, 2021.
The girl was unresponsive, her body was covered in bruises and doctors believed she was suffering from internal bleeding.
Moshe Williams told police that Paisleigh had been vomiting all night and he bathed her and cared for her. He also reportedly told a trauma doctor he believed the bruising could be from an infection, according to the affidavit.
“I don’t beat my child,” he told a Cody Police Officer who responded to the hospital, the affidavit relates.
When the child died a week later in a children’s hospital in Colorado, an autopsy by Dr. Stephen Cina showed that she had a detached bowel from what he described as a “gut punch.”
It likely caused her death by causing bacterial or fungal infections in her organs and leading to fluid buildup in her brain and lungs, Cina concluded.
They both denied hurting the child, floating theories that another 9-year-old child in the home could have caused the injuries while sleepwalking; or the toddler could have had other wrestling and bed-falling accidents, according to the affidavit.
Cina said that the injuries were likely caused by at least one adult.
Aune testified about what led to the Death of Paisleigh on the morning of Friday, March 26, 2021. Aune was taking care of her three children and Williams’ two children while Williams was at work.
She testified that Paisleigh was “okay” that morning, but was throwing up and could only get down about three Cheerios.
When Williams came home from work around 10 a.m, Aune said he took over caring for Paisleigh.
The rest of the day proceeded normally, but things changed at 4:30 p.m. when Aune and Williams got into a fight over how they disciplined their respective children, Aune said.
“Moshe was bringing up that I needed to spank my children or be more aggressive and stern, and I told him that that’s not what I do. I don’t spank,” Aune said. “He was not okay with that.”
At that point, she said, Williams began walking towards her with a “threatening” demeanor with “his chest puffed out.”
“I was yelling at him and he was yelling at me, and we had a very loud exchange of words,” Aune said. “I said, if he wanted to fucking hit me, then fucking hit me.”
Williams began banging the cupboards and cabinets and eventually flipped over the kitchen table, Aune said. By dinner time, she said Paisleigh wasn’t eating but was still vomiting.
After dinner, Aune gave Paisleigh and her two youngest children a bath. She told jurors she only noticed bruises on Paisleigh’s elbow, collar bone and sternum, but hadn’t seen any hematomas on her head or other bruising along her body.
After the bath, Aune went to get her children dressed while Williams got Paisleigh dressed, but she said Paisleigh vomited again and Williams took her back to the bathroom.
Then, she heard whining and noises coming from the bathroom and went to check what was going on.
“I saw Paisleigh was leaning over the toilet … and her forehead was inside the toilet water. Her feet were not touching the ground,” Aune said. “She was wet and she looked scared.”
She then asked Williams, “What the fuck is going on here” and Williams told her “it wasn’t any of my business what was happening here.”
Aune then grabbed Paisleigh from the toilet and laid her on some laundry that was in front of the washer and dryer in the bathroom, she said. A physical altercation ensued between Aune and Williams.
“I pushed him and he pushed me back. I hit him a couple of times in the chest,” Aune said.
But Aune saw one of her daughters walking towards the bathroom and left to keep her away. Then, she said she heard a “slight movement” and turned around to see Williams stomping on Paisleigh.
“It seemed like it was a frustrated stomp, not necessarily something that was meant to do damage,” Aune said.
They proceeded with their normal nighttime routine, Aune said. She did not suggest to Williams that Paisleigh needed to go to the hospital because “I thought she was okay,” Aune said.
On the morning of Saturday, March 27, Aune testified she left the apartment from around 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., for an appointment and a visit with her children’s grandmother.
Before she left, Williams had told her if Paisleigh’s vomiting got worse, he’d take her to the ER. When she returned, Aune said she did not check in on Paisleigh as “nothing was unusual about Paisleigh at that time.”
“I did not have any information that Paisleigh was not okay,” she told jurors.
Then, Williams left to get medication for Paisleigh, but found her unresponsive when he got back and took her to the ER.
A few hours later, Cody Police Officer Mark Martinez showed up at the apartment to talk with Aune. Aune testified she lied several times to Martinez because she didn’t feel safe or comfortable.
Maintaining she never inflicted any injury on Paisleigh, Aune said she never knew the full extent of the injuries that were a result of the blunt force trauma Williams inflicted.
“If I did, I would have done something, whether she was my child or not,” she said.
Park County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jack Hatfield said Aune “had a duty of care to Paisleigh as a person responsible for her welfare, and she inflicted harm on Paisleigh by failing to get her to medical attention promptly.
“Delay in care is the reason she’s at the coroner’s office.”
Before Martinez interviewed Aune at the apartment, she had a 19-minute phone call with Williams, Hatfield said — “a nice opportunity for them to get their story straight.”
Moshe Williams is set to face a jury trial in October, but due to a change of venue approval by Park County District Court Judge Bobbi Overfield, the trial will now be held in Hot Springs County rather than Park County.
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