BOULDER, Colo. (AP) – A Colorado woman who went to great lengths to convince others she was pregnant before cutting a stranger’s unborn baby from her womb was convicted Tuesday in a gruesome attack that reignited the national debate over the legal rights of fetuses.
Jurors found Dynel Lane, 36, guilty of attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the March 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins, who was 7 ½ months pregnant. Wilkins survived, but her unborn daughter died.
Lane sat straight and was quiet as the judge read the verdict. Wilkins sat clasping the hands of an older man sitting with her in the courtroom.
Lane, who had posted online photos of herself with a distended belly and sent her husband ultrasound pictures, lured Wilkins, 27, to her home with a Craigslist ad for maternity clothes. Wilkins testified during trial that they chatted for about an hour before Lane hit, pushed and tried to choke her, then used two kitchen knives to cut the baby from her womb.
The case stunned the foothills community of Longmont and reignited a highly charged debate playing out nationwide over whether a fetus can legally be considered a human being. District Attorney Stan Garnett said he could not charge Lane with murder because a coroner found no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb.