Dynel Catrece Lane, 35, was also found guilty in a Boulder
courtroom of a charge of unlawfully terminating a pregnancy stemming
from the March 2015 attack on Michelle Wilkins, 27.
Wilkins, who was seven months pregnant, survived the stabbing at
Lane's home in Longmont, 30 miles (56 km) north of Denver, but
Wilkins' unborn baby girl died.
The case renewed discussion of whether termination of a pregnancy
can ever be considered murder. Prosecutors filed a charge of
unlawful termination of a pregnancy, and not murder, against Lane
after the Boulder County Coroner ruled the unborn child was a fetus
rather than a baby because it had not taken a breath outside the
womb.
Lane showed little emotion in court on Tuesday, after the jury
deliberated for seven hours, starting on Monday.
Wilkins also was present for the verdict and dabbed at her eyes with
a tissue as it was read.
"I do hope she finds the time to reflect on what she did," Wilkins
told reporters outside court.
Prosecutors said Lane faked a pregnancy and then, after her husband
became suspicious about whether she in fact was carrying a child,
she took out an advertisement on the website Craigslist to lure a
pregnant woman with an offer of maternity clothes.
Wilkins testified that when she went to Lane's home, responding to
the advertisement, the older woman bludgeoned, stabbed and choked
her until she passed out.
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Lane's weapons included a lava lamp that she used to bash Wilkins on
the head and two kitchen knives that she cut the fetus from the
victim's womb, according to police and testimony in the trial last
week.
When her husband returned home, Lane told him that she suffered a
miscarriage and he rushed her to a hospital along with the deceased
fetus, police said. Wilkins, who was slipping in and out of
consciousness, called 911 from the basement of the home where police
later found her, clinging to life.
Boulder County District Court Judge Maria Berkenkotter set
sentencing for April 29. Boulder County District Attorney Stan
Garnett said prosecutors have not determined the prison sentence
they will seek but it could amount to more than 100 years.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman, editing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by
Cynthia Osterman)
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