Dynel Lane, 36, was sentenced to 100 years in prison after attempting to rob a woman of her unborn 8-month baby. Asked in court if she wanted to speak, she said “no”.
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Lane was convicted in February of attempted first-degree murder, four counts of assault and one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
Wilkins asked permission from the judge to address her attacker directly in the Boulder County Courtroom.
“You knowingly left me to die multiple times”, Wilkins reportedly said in court on Friday in part of her victim impact statement.
During the trial, Lane’s attorney did not deny the fetus was cut out of Wilkins by the defendant, but claimed the attack was unplanned and in self-defense.
Prosecutors said they could not charge Lane with murder of the baby because there was no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb. She also posted photos of a man, arguing that he was the father of her baby while also displaying ultrasound images that she had found online.
Wilkins, the pregnant woman who was lost her unborn child, placed a picture of her dead baby, who appeared to be sleeping, on an easel next to the witness stand, and requested the court to issue the harshest possible sentence. The court could see Aurora’s face as Wilkins said she has waited for Lane to take responsibility for the crimes.
While doing her best to stop the bleeding, Wilkins managed to call 911. At roughly the same time, a barely-alive Wilkins was rushed to LUH after she regained consciousness and was able to call police.
Lane lured Wilkins, 26 at the time, to her house in the city of Longmont, north of Denver, in March 2015. On the day of the attack, Lane told her partner that she’d had a miscarriage.
Berkenkotter acknowledged that was Lane’s constitutional right, but said that in weighing her sentence, she had to take into account that “people are hungry to hear from you, Miss Lane”.
The 100-year sentence includes the maximum penalties for attempted murder and unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
Some 38 U.S. states have made a foetus’ killing a homicide despite objections from abortion-rights supporters.
Dynel Lane lured a pregnant woman to her home before cutting the foetus from the victim’s womb.
Lane has two children of her own, and she and Mr Ridley had been trying for another.
“Judge Berkenkotter was clearly listening to everything that we were saying”, Wilkins told reporters, adding she felt justice had been served.
The women sorted the clothes and talked about pregnancy, shopping and their partners, Wilkins said in testimony delivered in February.
Ridley rushed Lane and the baby to the hospital after discovering the scene when he came home.
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After bringing the baby to Longmont United Hospital, Lane claimed it was hers.
