A murder trial involving a stolen fetus caused a juror to faint in a Bronx, New York, courtroom Sept. 28.
According to the NY Daily News, the crime scene photo presented at the trial of Ashleigh Wade was so bloody and gruesome a juror fainted when the image was displayed in the court. Wade is accused of the 2015 murder of Angelikque Sutton, a woman who was nine months pregnant that she had called a friend.
According to evidence presented in court, Wade had been lying to her family members for several months that she was pregnant. During that time she received gifts and even outfitted a room as a nursery in her home. But it was all a lie and she needed to keep that lie going. So she convinced Sutton to come to her home because she had a gift for her. But the only gift was a methodically planned gruesome death for Sutton. Assistant Bronx DA Meredith Holtzman described in detail the horrific nature of the crime to the court.
“The defendant attacked Ms. Sutton by stabbing and slashing her repeatedly in the face and neck. The defendant cut Ms. Sutton’s larynx — her voice box. Ms. Sutton could not scream, could not say a word. She cut her major blood vessels. What the defendant did to her next is almost unspeakable.Because after she had rendered Ms. Sutton unable to scream, unable to move, the defendant took a kitchen paring knife and sliced Ms. Sutton’s abdomen open at the bottom half. Once she had cut Ms. Sutton’s abdomen open, the defendant cut Ms. Sutton’s uterus entirely out. She cut that uterus open, took baby Jenasis out, and discarded that uterus on the bathroom floor. … She had baby clothes, baby shoes, diapers, formula, a crib, everything that an expectant mother would need, except a baby. She didn’t have a baby. For that, she needed Angelikque Sutton,” Holtzman said.
Wade was found by her boyfriend with the infant in her arms next to Sutton’s body. He called the police to the scene and the mentally disturbed Wade declared to Officers “It’s my baby!” as they took her into custody. Wade has pleaded not guilty to killing Sutton even though at the time she confessed to police.
Jenasis is now 22 months old. She is being raised by her father Patrick Bradley, who was engaged to Sutton at the time of her murder.
