USDA/FILE: Conviction for woman who killed pregnant mother for the baby
- 00:00:04
- ITN Source
USDA/FILE: Conviction for woman who killed pregnant mother for the baby
A Missouri woman who killed a pregnant woman and then cut the baby from her womb faces the death penalty. A Kansas woman was found guilty on Monday (October 22) of killing a pregnant woman, cutting the baby from her womb and kidnapping the newborn in a gruesome ruse to pass the child off as her own. A jury convicted Lisa M. Montgomery, 39, of Melvern, Kansas, on a charge of kidnapping resulting in death, finding she strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, the baby's mother and sliced open her abdomen with a kitchen knife. At the time of the crime in December 2004, Stinnett was eight months pregnant and Montgomery was pretending to family and friends that she was nine months pregnant, according to evidence presented at the trial. The baby girl was found a day after the crime at Montgomery's home and returned to her father unharmed. Montgomery's lawyers argued during the trial that the Kansas woman suffered from a delusional belief that she was pregnant and said she may have been unable to differentiate between right and wrong when she killed Stinnett. But prosecutors said Montgomery carefully planned the fatal meeting at Stinnett's home in Skidmore, Missouri, pretending she wanted to purchase a rat terrier puppy. Montgomery tried to pass off Stinnett's baby as her own, telling her husband she had gone into labour while on a shopping trip and having him pick her up near a Topeka health center where she said she gave birth. Jurors deliberated four hours after 11 days of testimony. The charge of kidnapping resulting in murder allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty. U.S. Attorney John Wood said "The only good thing that's come from this tragedy is that today young Victoria Jo is a healthy, soon-to-be 3-year-old child and has been reunited with her father." Jurors will begin the penalty phase of the trial on Wednesday (October 24), with a choice between the death penalty or life in federal prison without parole.
ITN Source | October 23, 2007
