Attacker Who Cut Mom’s Unborn Baby From Her Womb Will Stand Trial, Face No Charges in Baby’s Death
The attacker who brutally assaulted 7-month-pregnant Michelle Wilkins and cut her unborn baby girl from her womb will stand trial over charges associated with the assault and attempted murder on Wilkins but will not face any charges for killing her baby.
The news comes one day after Democrats in the Colorado legislature killed an unborn victims bill to hold criminals accountable when they kill or injure unborn children in violent crimes against them and their mothers. The bill would allow charges to be brought when criminals kill or injure unborn babies like Aurora.
Dynel Lane (pictured above) attacked Wilkins and talked with Wilkins for an hour before luring Wilkins to her basement in a ruse to sell her baby clothing. In the brief filed by the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, Dynel Lane, allegedly attacked Wilkins with her hands on March 18 before she broke a lava lamp over Wilkins’ head, according to documents filed with the court.
Lane used the broken lava lamp to stab Wilkins in the neck and then choked her, before trying to smother her with a pillow. When Wilkins passed out on a bed in bedroom located in the basement, Lane is accused of using a knife to cutting the victim’s abdomen and removing her baby, prosecutors said.
Court documents indicate Lane allegedly placed Wilkins’ daughter Aurora in a bathtub in a bathroom upstairs, while she left Wilkins bleeding for a lengthy period of time in the basement bedroom. After the attack, Wilkins managed to call 911 for help. She was rescued and underwent surgery and treatment at Longmont United Hospital.
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Hours later, Lane arrived at the same hospital with her husband and the deceased child. She told hospital officials and her husband that she had a miscarriage. However, according to the arrest report, Lane admitted to a detective that she cut open the victim’s abdomen to remove the baby girl. Lane once held a license as a nurses’ aide in Colorado.
Now, a judge has ruled that Lane will stand trial for the assault and attempted charges, but prosecutors are unable to charge Lane with killing Aurora because she was dead at the time she was fully removed from the womb. 7News has more:
At the preliminary hearing in Boulder, the judge set an arraignment date for July 24.
Since prosecutors said there is no evidence the baby lived outside the womb, Lane was charged with unlawful termination of pregnancy for the alleged attack.
“Neither the autopsy or the investigation have provided any evidence that the baby exhibited any signs of life outside of the womb, therefore the circumstance is not being considered a live birth,” coroner Emma Hall said in a statement sent to 7NEWS.
Wilkins’ family released a statement to 7News in response:
“The Wilkins family deeply appreciates the support afforded to us by Stan Garnett and his team at the Boulder County District Attorney’s office. We are confident in their ability to successfully see that justice is carried out in a manner proportionate with the circumstances surrounding the attack on Michelle and the resulting tragic death of her soon to be born daughter Aurora. We endorse the charges chosen by the District Attorney and believe them to be correct and reflective of what is permissible under current Colorado law.
As a family, we believe that efforts to seek justice on behalf of Michelle and Aurora are now in the hands of Colorado’s Twentieth Judicial District — not in ours. We now choose to let the legal system run its proper course and will refrain from making any comments on the conduct of the court case until it is concluded and a verdict reached.
Colorado Citizens for Life, the statewide pro-life group, was very disappointed by the vote against the unborn victims bill.
“In March, a woman in Longmont was arrested after she attacked Michelle Wilkins and cut her 7-month-old unborn baby from her womb. Michelle’s daughter Aurora died, but she survived. Unbelievably, after the grisly incident, prosecutors in Boulder County announced that the woman responsible for baby Aurora’s death would not face murder charges because Colorado law refuses to provide justice for unborn babies,” said Colorado Citizens for Life director Sarah Zagorski.
“It is a travesty that not a single Democrat voted in favor of this legislation, which would bring justice for babies like Aurora who die in violent homicides. At the very least, Colorado Citizens for Life would hope that lawmakers could put aside their partisan differences to pass this common sense piece of legislation,” she said.
During the debate on the measure, pro-abortion Democrats falsely claimed the bill would be used to prosecute women for miscarriages or would ban abortions, even though federal unborn victims law and the laws of dozens of states have not done so.
In 2013, Colorado Democrats killed a bill that would add the state to the list of more than 25 states that provide justice and protection for pregnant women and unborn children.
