Share

Colorado woman who cut baby from stranger’s womb convicted

Lane faces a maximum of more than 100 years in prison and will receive a minimum of 16 years, prosecutors said.

Advertisement

Jurors on Tuesday convicted Dynel Lane of attempted first-degree murder in a frenzied attack in which she lured a pregnant Longmont woman to her basement and cut out her 7-month-old fetus.

Lane was found guilty of attempted first degree murder, two counts each of first and second-degree assault, and unlawful termination of a pregnancy by a Boulder County jury after seven hours of deliberation. That was before Lane cut into her with a knife and cut out her unborn baby.

Prosecutors filed a charge of unlawful termination of a pregnancy against Lane after the Boulder County Coroner ruled the unborn child was a foetus rather than a baby because it had not taken a breath outside the womb.

Lane showed little emotion as the verdict was delivered and was led away in handcuffs after court adjourned.

Lane had posted online photos of herself with a distended belly and sent the man she said was the father of her child ultrasound images downloaded from the Internet.

“She was covered in blood”, Sawyer said.

“I do not hate Dynel, but I am angry for all the pain that she caused”, Wilkins said.

Wilkins said she plans to be at the sentencing and will speak.

In 2015, Lane lured Wilkins, 26, to her home after posting an ad on Craigslist about baby clothes, LifeNews previously reported.

“Several times I told her I had to go and I thought she was lonely because she just kept talking over me”, Wilkins said.

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

At the hospital after the attack, Lane had initially claimed the child was her own.

Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett said he anticipates the top end of Lane’s prison sentence could be 110-120 years, depending on a few court rulings on whether the sentences for the various charges will be consecutive or concurrent.

At trial, Dynel Lane’s former boyfriend, David Ridley, testified that Lane told him she was pregnant since early in the relationship, though she’d told him her tubes had been tied, according to according to CNN affiliate KDVR.

The case prompted Republican legislators to introduce a bill previous year to allow prosecutors to press charges in the death of an unborn baby, but Democrats defeated the measure over fears that it would usher in fetal personhood. During the trial, they did not dispute that she attacked Wilkins but argued there was no evidence it was a calculated murder attempt. It was the third time such a proposal failed in Colorado, setting it apart from 38 states that have made the killing of a fetus a homicide over the objection of many abortion-rights supporters.

She told police in the interview, “I killed her, I killed this woman”, and then said she believes she was attacked. “I hope she finds the opportunity to reflect on what she did”. Herold said. “Not if you’re making a hasty and impulsive decision, which is what Miss Lane did”.

Prosecutors explained to the jury that Lane had been trying to prove to her family for months that she was pregnant.

Advertisement

On the day of the attack, they were supposed to attend a pre-natal appointment together; when he arrived, he testified, he found the baby in a bathtub.

The jury in Colorado found Dynel Lane guilty of attempted first-degree murder