The attack occurred on March 18 of 2015, as her trial lasted until February. Lane also was convicted of assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy after luring Wilkins with an ad for maternity clothes. “In this case, I believe justice was done and we’re pleased with the sentencing in this case”.
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The woman was found guilty during a court hearing for cutting a seven-month-old foetus from the womb of an expectant mother. They were seeking a 118-year maximum prison sentence instead.
In the meantime, Wilkins was still at Lane’s Longmont, Colorado home, unconscious in the basement. A judge on Friday sentenced Lane to 100 years in prison for cutting a almost 8-month-old fetus from Wilkin’s womb. Lane appeared to cry during the sentencing hearing when her family spoke. In Friday, she was given the harshest punishment on both counts.
The child, later named Aurora, did not survive the attack.
According to Lane’s relatives, she had ongoing psychological issues due to the loss of her 19-month son, who had drowned in 2002.
Lane herself has expressed no remorse for the attack and did not speak at the trial in her own defence.
However, Lane also told police that it was Wilkins who first attacked her, and she fought back out of self-defense. They urged jurors to convict Lane of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter. Lane received 48 years for attempted murder and 32 years for unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
“I thought I killed her and I didn’t want the baby to die, too”, Lane said. Her partner testified he came home early that day to take Lane to a doctor’s appointment and found her covered in blood, saying she’d had a miscarriage.
Lane reportedly murmured “no” when Berkenkotter asked her if she wanted to speak. “In this whole process, it’s hard to feel acknowledged because Lane in any outward sense is not taking any accountability except in the judicial process”.
While Lane opted not to give a statement, friends and family members told the judge these crimes were not typical of Lane’s character. Hungry, desperate to hear you express genuine remorse from the bottom of your heart’.
She was not charged with murder for the death of the baby girl, however, because the coroner could offer no evidence that she had lived outside of the womb.
After the attack, Colorado Democrats blocked a legislative push to pass a fetal homicide law.
Elsewhere in the U.S., 38 states have made killing a foetus a crime of murder with intent.
Wilkins focused on her unborn daughter Friday. Before Wilkins began speaking, she displayed a large poster picture on an easel.
Lane has two children of her own, and she and Mr Ridley had been trying for another. However, the court did not hear the claims. David Ridley, who lived with Lane and her two daughters, testified at trial that Lane claimed for more than a year that she was expecting a boy, whom they planned to name James.
Public Defender Kate Herold said during sentencing that Lane has shown a potential for rehabilitation, because she has done well in jail, become a trustee and acted as a leader of sorts of other women in custody.
Lane hit Ms Wilkins over the head with a lava lamp and stabbed her in the neck with the broken glass.
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“It had just never entered my worldview that someone could be so cruel and value life so little”, Wilkins said.
