Jury convicts woman who cut baby from womb

Jurors have convicted a Colorado woman of cutting a stranger’s baby from her womb in a gruesome case that reignited the debate over the legal rights of fetuses.

The jury found Dynel Lane guilty of attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in last year’s attack. Prosecutors say Lane went to great lengths to convince others she was expecting a baby before luring Michelle Wilkins to her home with a Craigslist ad for maternity clothes.

She then hit and choked Wilkins before using two kitchen knives to cut out the unborn girl.
Wilkins, who was 7 1/2 months pregnant, survived, but her baby died.

Prosecutors say they couldn’t charge Lane with murder because a coroner found no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb.

That prompted Republican legislation that would’ve allowed murder charges for killing a fetus, but Democrats rejected it.

Wilkins spoke to the media after the verdict was read.

“It had just never entered my worldview that someone could be so cruel and value life so little,” she said.

Wilkins said that her spirituality pulls her through her darkest days and that she is focusing on healing and on her personal goal of opening a community center. She says she is medically able to have more children, but that she is still mourning Aurora, the baby she lost.

Wilkins also said that she forgives Lane and that she does not hate lane, but that she wants Lane to understand her anger and frustration.

When asked how she felt when the verdict was read, Wilkins said she expected a sense of personal triumph, but that it felt much bigger than that. She said it felt like a triumph for justice.

Lane will be sentenced on April 29. Wilkins said she will speak at the sentencing hearing.