{"id":57952,"date":"2018-02-03T06:22:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T06:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=57952"},"modified":"2018-02-03T09:59:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T09:59:24","slug":"woman-gets-life-without-parole-cutting-pregnant-neighbors-baby-womb-victim-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/woman-gets-life-without-parole-cutting-pregnant-neighbors-baby-womb-victim-alive.html","title":{"rendered":"Woman Gets Life Without Parole After Cutting Pregnant Neighbor’s Baby From Womb as Victim Was Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woman Gets Life Without Parole After Cutting Pregnant Neighbor’s Baby From Womb as Victim Was Alive<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

A Fargo, North Dakota, woman was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her part in the grisly death of a pregnant neighbor, who was killed after her baby was removed from her womb, PEOPLE confirms.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the afternoon hearing for Brooke Crews, prosecutors shed light on the final moments in the life of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old who had dreamed of becoming a registered nurse and who was eight-months pregnant when she was killed in August.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miraculously, her child survived the attack with minimal physical trauma. The baby is now in the custody of her father, who was LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s boyfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

The details released in court on Friday were the first significant new information in months in a case that has made international headlines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors said at the sentencing that Crews, 38, admitted she cut LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s infant daughter out of her body in a kind of crude caesarean section, the state\u2019s attorney\u2019s office in Cass County, North Dakota, confirms to PEOPLE. The attack occurred on Aug. 19, not long after Crews lured the younger woman to her third-floor apartment in the building where they both lived, according to prosecutors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cass County prosecutor Tanya Martinez told the court that the defendant said she pushed LaFontaine-Greywind after some kind of altercation and LaFontaine-Greywind hit her head, rendering her unconscious.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to fellow prosecutor Leah Jo Viste, Martinez then said in court that Crews told police, \u201cI grabbed either a utility knife or a blade\u201d \u2014 and, as LaFontaine-Greywind was drifting in and out of consciousness, Crews removed her child from the womb, prosecutors said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did cut [LaFontaine-Greywind] and then I took her baby out of her,\u201d Martinez said that Crews told police.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Martinez quoted Crews as saying that LaFontaine-Greywind \u201cwas not dead when I cut the baby out of her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews also told police that when LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s body was located, Crews knew she would be found \u201csliced hip to hip,\u201d Martinez said in court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors did not specify when or where Lafontaine-Greywind died.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ashton Matheny, LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s longtime boyfriend and the father of her child, 5-month-old Haisley Jo, told PEOPLE in December that he feared Crews had cut their daughter out of LaFontaine-Greywind.<\/span><\/p>\n

His suspicions were confirmed on Friday. \u201cRight now my mind\u2019s kind of paralyzed,\u201d he told reporters after the hearing. \u201c[I] don\u2019t know how to process it honestly. I don\u2019t think I ever will, because they took the love of my life away. She [Crews] stripped my future away from me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews was found with LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s daughter in Crews\u2019 apartment on Aug. 24, leading to her arrest, as authorities still searched for the missing woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight days after vanishing \u2014 and three days after Crews and her live-in boyfriend, William Hoehn, were taken into custody \u2014 LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s body was discovered wrapped in plastic and duct tape in the Red River in the Fargo area.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matheny, 22, had to leave the courtroom when Crews began speaking during Friday\u2019s hearing, a source tells PEOPLE. He attended the sentencing with Haisley Jo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dressed in red to honor murdered and missing indigenous women \u2014 LaFontaine-Greywind was Native American \u2014 her friends and family were also in court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before she was sentenced, Crews apologized to LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s family. \u201cI\u2019m just really, really, really sorry,\u201d she said, according to the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. \u201cI wish I could take their pain. I wish I hadn\u2019t done this. There is no excuse. There is no rationalization. There is nothing. I know it doesn\u2019t help, but I am sorry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews\u2019 attorney, Steven Mottinger, declined to comment to PEOPLE, but he had asked for his client to be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, the Associated Press reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAcceptance of responsibility is important,\u201d Mottinger said. \u201cIt has to mean something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

LaFontaine-Greywind\u2019s mother, Norberta Greywind, also addressed the court, saying their family had to move from Fargo after her daughter\u2019s slaying.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI miss her laugh. I miss her so much,\u201d she reportedly said. \u201cMy heart is literally broken. I find myself looking through pictures and videos. Brooke Crews befriended us. She was monitoring our daily routine. I still have nightmares. I cannot accept that someone had done this to my daughter. For someone to do this to another human is beyond evil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain and void my granddaughter will have to carry for the rest of her life breaks my heart,\u201d Greywind said. \u201cHaisley will never feel that love from her mother.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews pleaded guilty on Dec. 11 to three charges: conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and giving false information to the police. She had not reached a deal with prosecutors but changed her plea, her attorney said at the time, in hopes of getting a more favorable sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crews\u2019 boyfriend, the 32-year-old Hoehn, was arrested on Aug. 24 on the same charges. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a May trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Thursday, the day before Crews was sentenced, Matheny told PEOPLE he was apprehensive about attending the hearing: \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do or say or feel when I see Brooke in court.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:- http:\/\/people.com\/crime\/fargo-woman-brooke-crews-sentenced-killing-pregnant-savanna-greywind\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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