Dynel Lane: Colorado woman found guilty of cutting foetus from pregnant woman

A Colorado woman who prosecutors said was obsessed with having a baby and concocted elaborate lies to convince those close to her that she was pregnant was convicted Tuesday of cutting a almost 8-month-old fetus from a stranger’s womb. Prosecutors charged Lane with attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the March 2015 attack of Michelle Wilkins. Wilkins was seven months pregnant when Lane attacked her and cut the baby from Wilkins’ womb. Ms. Wilkins said she plans to speak at the sentencing hearing scheduled for April 29.

Wilkins says one of the things that helped fuel her strength over this past year is support from so many people who heard about her story and reached out.

Wilkins, who had responded to Lane’s ad on Craigslist for maternity clothes in March 2015, testified during a trial that they talked for roughly an hour and that Lane pushed and attempted to choke her before using two kitchen knives to cut the baby from her womb.

Realizing she was too weak to escape the home or outrun her attacker, Wilkins said she locked the door, then happened to spot her cellphone, allowing her to make an emergency call.

She said that after an hour she went to leave, but Lane, 35, convinced her to look at some baby clothes she had in the basement.

He said he and his partner, who were first on the scene, weren’t prepared for such a terrible sight. She says Colorado has been a place of healing where she’s found solace on hikes and through her love of pottery. The lawyer also said Lane gave no thought to how she would explain her actions to police. But when 10 months passed and she hadn’t given birth, he told her he needed answers from a doctor about the baby or he would leave her. The trial commenced last Wednesday and Lane has not taken the stand.

Defense attorneys argued that the attack was unplanned and driven by impulse, according to the Denver Post.

Ridley ran to the bathroom and found “a small baby lying in the bathtub”, the police report said. When she turned to leave, she said, Lane attacked.

Ms Sutton and her baby were taken to Montefiore Hospital, where Ms Sutton was pronounced dead.

In response to the crime, a Republican legislator has been pushing to introduce a new law making “fetal homicide” a crime in Colorado.

The coroner was not able to find any evidence that the fetus had lived once outside the womb.

“The Supreme Court and the court of appeals will get to tell us that eventually”.

Michelle Wilkins speaks candidly about the attack on her nearly a year ago, losing her unborn child and the emotional trial to members of the press inside the Boulder County Justice Center on February 23, 2016.

Lane replied “If you love me, you’ll let me do this”, and then stabbed Wilkins in the neck with a piece of a lava lamp that broke when she bashed Wilkins in the head.

The prosecutors made a decision to try Lane on a charge they felt was easier to prove, that of the attempted first-degree murder of Michelle Wilkins.

Lane said nothing to Ridley about Wilkins, who was unconscious at her home.

“The hardship that my daughter Aurora went through, the hardship that I went through, all of that was seen and acknowledged with that verdict”, Wilkins said.