Colorado woman gets 100 years for cutting baby from mother's womb

A Colorado jury has sentenced the woman who killed a baby by cutting her from her mother’s womb to 100 years in prison.

Dynel Lane, 36, received the maximum penalty for attempted murder and unlawful termination of a pregnancy. But the unborn baby, named Aurora, was not considered a person under Colorado law, so Lane could not be charged with her death.

Lane used a kitchen knife to cut open Michelle Wilkins and take her child after luring the woman to her home with an online ad for baby clothes. She did not speak in her own defense during her trial, nor did she make a statement during today’s sentencing hearing. A jury convicted her in February.

Lane went to great lengths to feign her own pregnancy before attacking Wilkins, who was 7 months pregnant. After cutting the little girl from Wilkins’ womb, she carried the baby to an upstairs bathroom and called her boyfriend, telling him she had suffered a miscarriage.

The jury that convicted Lane did not hear evidence about what might have caused her such a dramatic break with reality. In 2002, her 19-month-old son drowned, an incident investigators ruled an accident. During her sentencing hearing, family members said her remorse over the child’s death might have led her to want another baby so badly she became desperate.

Her lawyers argued she did not intend to kill Wilkins and asked for a conviction of attempted manslaughter.

Before Wilkins testified today, she set up a large photograph of Aurora on an easel next to the witness stand. The baby appeared to be sleeping. Wilkins asked the judge to impose the harshest possible sentence.

“Judge Berkenkotter was clearly listening to everything that we were saying,” Wilkins told reporters after the hearing, adding she felt justice had been served.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.