A Colorado jury on Tuesday convicted a woman on all counts for allegedly cutting a fetus from an expectant mother in March.
Dynel Lane, 35, was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder and other counts stemming from the March 18 attack in Longmort, NBC affiliate KUSA reported.
The unborn child, later found by Lane’s husband in her bathtub, was pronounced dead. The coroner ruled the baby showed no signs of life after it was removed, meaning Lane couldn’t be charged with murder for the infant’s death.
Prosecutors instead argued that Lane intended to kill the expectant mother when she attacked her, and detailed how Lane worked for months to convince her family that she was pregnant — a ruse that included passing around an ultrasound image she found on the Internet, the station reported.
Defense attorneys argued that Lane never meant to kill the mother and asked the jury to convict her of attempted manslaughter instead, KUSA reported. Lane will be sentenced on April 29.
Lane beat the victim before cutting out the 34-week-old fetus. The pregnant woman, Michelle Wilkins, 28, recovered from her injuries and testified against Lane at the trial.
“I just remember I kept asking why she was doing that and I just kept saying why? Why are you doing this?” Wilkins said during the trial.
