A Colorado woman, convicted of cutting an unborn baby from its mother’s womb, was sentenced on Friday to 100 years in prison.
Dynel Lane, 36, attacked Michelle Wilkins, who was seven months pregnant and had responded to Lane’s online advertisement for maternity and baby clothes. Wilkins survived the March 18, 2015, attack but her unborn baby — a girl — did not.
According to the prosecutors, when Wilkins came to Lane’s house in Longmont, about 40 miles north of Denver, Lane beat and stabbed her, cutting into her uterus and removing the fetus.
The authorities said that Lane went to elaborate lengths to fake her own pregnancy before attacking Wilkins. They did not hear that in 2002, Lane’s 19-month-old son drowned in what investigators ruled was an accident.
Lane’s attorneys did not argue that she attacked Wilkins, but they disputed there was no proof it was a calculated murder attempt. They urged jurors to convict Lane of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter.
Judge Maria Berkenkotter sentenced Lane to 48 years for attempted murder and 32 years for unlawful termination of a pregnancy. The remainder of her sentence was for assault charges in the attack.
The prosecutors said they were not able to charge Lane with murdering Wilkins’ unborn girl because a coroner found no proof the fetus lived outside the womb. That led Colorado Republicans to introduce legislation that would have allowed a murder charge.
Kathryn Herold, the public defender representing Lane, told the judge she would appeal and that Lane had the right not to speak. Berkenkotter acknowledged that was Lane’s constitutional right.