Woman who cut friend’s baby out of her womb set for murder trial
A Bronx woman who killed her friend and then cut her baby out of her womb specifically planned her attack so that the baby her friend was carrying would not be harmed, prosecutors said on Monday.
Ashleigh Wade, 23, had reportedly told friends and family that she was pregnant, even stocking up on diapers and formula. However, Wade wasn’t pregnant, but her childhood friend, Angelikque Sutton, was. The two of them rekindled their old friendship over their supposed pregnancies, but on the same day that Sutton was supposed to be married, Wade attacked Sutton.
“The defendant attacked Ms. Sutton by stabbing and slashing her repeatedly in the face and neck,”District Attorney Meredith Holtzman told a jury.“All of those injuries in the first attack took place from the neck up. The defendant took great care to avoid injuring Ms. Sutton’s abdomen.”
— Boy beaten to death while protecting little sister from molester —
“What the defendant did to her next is almost unspeakable,” Holtzman said. “The defendant took a kitchen paring knife and sliced Ms. Sutton’s abdomen open. Once she had Ms. Sutton’s abdomen open, she cut Ms. Sutton’s uterus entirely out. She cut that uterus open, took baby Jenasis out, and discarded that uterus on the bathroom floor.”
Before police came to the scene, Wade’s boyfriend was seen holding the baby, thinking the child was his.
Wade insisted to police that the baby was hers, even though she admitted to the killing. She claimed that she had “rescued” the baby. Police ultimately found the baby wrapped in a coat on top of a parked car.
Nearly two years later, the baby’s father, Patrick Bradley, said that he was “still hurting” but that he would “of course” be at Wade’s trial.
