SHOULD DYNEL LANE BE CHARGED WITH MURDER? -- THE ASSAULT OF MICHELLE WILKINS

[HairOfTheDog]

OP UPDATE

BOULDER, Colo. -- Jurors in the trial of a woman charged with cutting an unborn baby out of another woman's womb will not hear testimony about the cause and manner of the baby's death, the judge ruled Thursday.

Attorneys for defendant Dynel Lane argued the information would be unduly prejudicial to her, the Longmont Times-Call reported. Jurors were not in the courtroom when Judge Maria Berkenkotter heard the arguments and made her ruling.

Lane is charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy in the March 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins in Longmont.

Defense attorney Jennifer Beck argued Lane wasn't charged with any crime against the unborn girl, so the fetus was not legally a victim and details of the death weren't relevant to the case.

District Attorney Stan Garnett said earlier that prosecutors couldn't charge Lane in the baby's death because a coroner found no evidence the fetus lived outside the womb.

That angered conservatives in the Colorado Legislature, who had previously tried but failed to enact a law making it a crime to kill a fetus. Colorado's law against unlawful termination of a pregnancy was a compromise that stemmed from earlier debates on the issue.

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jurors-in-st...-of-death/

[BigMark]

You bitches are cray cray!

[HairOfTheDog]

Guilty Verdict


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, 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.

Lane's attorneys did not dispute that she attacked Wilkins but argued there was no evidence it was a calculated murder attempt. They said the assault was haphazard and impulsive and urged jurors to convict Lane of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter. The jury didn't buy it; they believed the prosecution's contention that Lane planned the attack carefully.

Lane has two daughters and lost a 19-month-old boy in a drowning accident in 2002. She faces anywhere from 16 to 120 years in prison when she is sentenced in April.


After the hearing Tuesday, the victim, Michellle Wilkins ^, said she doesn't hate Lane, but is angry about all the pain she caused.

"There is nothing ever in any shape or form that can remotely prepare you for something like this," said Wilkins. "It just never entered my world views that someone could be so cruel and value life so little."

Wilkins, speaking slowly and with composure, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. on the power of forgiveness. She thanked her supporters and said it's confusing that life can be both cruel and beautiful.

Ref: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dynel-lane-c...ing-trial/

[HairOfTheDog]

Sentencing

Dynel Lane was sentenced to 100 years on Friday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/colorado-wom...from-womb/

[Duchess]

Crazy people should have to look crazy so we'd know to steer clear. They should be hideous & ill mannered and reek of the dead.