Dynel Lane, the suspect who admitted to slicing open a Colorado woman and stealing an unborn child from her womb, will not be charged with murder, prosecutors said Thursday.
"The issue of whether or not murder charges are appropriate involving a case involving the death of a fetus or late-term pregnancy is always a difficult issue," Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said last week,
The Washington Post reported.
"Under Colorado law, there's no way murder charges can be brought if it is not established that the fetus lived as a child outside the body of the mother for some period of time."
Garnett said the prosecution would wait for an autopsy report to determine if the 34-week-old fetus had taken any breaths after being pulled from the womb. Because a murder charge will not be brought, it appears as if it didn't.
Lane, 34, will likely be charged with unlawful termination of a pregnancy and assault charges for her attack on the mother, Michelle Wilkins, 26. Wilkins has been released from the hospital and is in recovery.
Lane, who found Wilkins selling baby clothes on Craigslist, attacked her inside Wilkins' home on March 18. She stabbed her several times in the stomach with a knife and a piece of broken glass.
After Lane made off with the child, she brought it home, and then took it to a hospital with her husband, David Ridley. Wilkins called 911. The fetus, which doctors said was viable, died. Ridley said he heard it take a gasping breath before it died.
When initially questioned about the fetus, Lane reportedly told her husband it was hers, and that she miscarried it. After taking it to a hospital, Lane admitted to cutting the baby from Wilkins.
Prosecutors are expected to announce Lane's charges on Friday afternoon.
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