Zahra Baker’s stepmum may appeal US conviction

ELISA Baker says she is not guilty of the murder and dismemberment of her 10-year-old stepdaughter, Zahra Baker.

Zahra Baker Murder

THE stepmother of Australian girl Zahra Baker is reportedly planning to appeal her conviction for the 10-year-old’s murder and dismemberment in North Carolina.

Although the time limit for a normal appeal has expired, The Daily Telegraph reports that she will try to mount a motion for appropriate relief.

“There’s things in the works, yes. It’s the understanding that they think I have a very good case,” Baker said.

The 47-year-old woman, who pleaded guilty to the second degree murder of Zahra, said she was pressured and rushed into signing her plea.

Elisa Baker says she is not responsible for Zahra’s death. Picture: Tom Fuldner

Elisa Baker, who was convicted for the murder and dismemberment her 10-year-old Australian stepdaughter Zahra Baker, speaks from inside the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Institute. Picture: Tom Fuldner

Wagga Wagga-born Zahra, 10, was reported missing by her father, Adam Baker, on October 11, 2010, from the family’s home in Hickory, North Carolina.

Her dismembered remains were found scattered in bushland soon after.

Baker was arrested and jailed for 18 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 2011.

Zahra Baker who was brutally murdered and dismembered by her stepmother Elisa Baker in North Carolina, USA in 2010. Zahra, who was in remission from bone cancer, was allegedly the victim of continued abuse prior to her murder.

Speaking from jail, Baker told News Corp Australia that she did not commit the crime and described how she keeps a photo of the slain girl pinned inside her North Carolina prison locker.

“Why would she haunt me? I was a good mamma,” she said.

Zahra had beaten cancer twice when she was killed.

Plea agreement signed by Elisa Baker regarding the murder and dismembered of her 10-year-old Australian stepdaughter Zahra Baker in North Carolina, USA, in 2010.

Read more in The Daily Telegraph.

Originally published as Zahra Baker’s stepmum may appeal US conviction