Ashleigh Wade is a woman who has been accused of brutally slashing her pregnant friend’s throat on her wedding day and then cutting out her uterus to steal the baby girl inside – but incredibly the child survived.
According to The Sun UK, the victim, Angelikque Sutton, 22, was nine months into her pregnancy and reportedly on the way to a courthouse to marry Patrick Bradley when pal Ashleigh Wade stopped her in the Bronx, New York, USA.
Wade allegedly lured Ms Sutton to her apartment in November 2015 and cut her voice box before taking the baby from the womb, reported Mail Online.
“Ms Sutton could not scream, could not say a word,” said assistant Bronx district attorney Meredith Holtzman at the murder trial on Monday.
Holtzman said what Wade did next was “unspeakable”, accusing her of cutting the entire uterus out and then discarding the organ on the floor with Ms Sutton’s “butchered remains”.
NYPD cop Jonathan Polanco Ortiz who arrived at the crime scene told jurors it “left a mark on his soul”.
He said when he asked how many times she stabbed Ms Sutton, Wade replied “as many times as I could”.
She reportedly screamed at officers “it’s my baby”, while being dragged away.
Remarkably, the now flourishing 22-month-old child Jenasis lived through the horror.
Her dad Mr Bradley regularly posts photographs of his daughter on Facebook, one showed her learning how to box.
In a January Facebook message, Mr Bradley posted dual images of a playful Sutton sticking out her tongue next to a picture of her daughter mimicking the funny face.
“I showed my daughter this pic of her mom and she started making this face,” he wrote, reported the New York Post.
“Moments like this be hard to handle.”
The court learned that Wade, who has suffered depression, childhood abuse and domestic violence, called 911 multiple times and waited outside after allegedly committing the horror act.
She claimed she stabbed Ms Sutton in self-defence.
Jurors heard that Wade had reconnected with Ms Sutton, a childhood friend, through Facebook.
For months, The New York Post reported Wade had lied to friends and acquaintances that she was pregnant.
She even posted pictures of sonogram and baby clothes on Facebook.
“She didn’t have a baby, for that she needed Angelikque Sutton,” added Holtzman.
If the defense succeeds, the charges could be reduced to manslaughter and Wade could avoid a life sentence, reported the New York Post.
