Colorado Woman Describes Attack on Pregnant Victim: 'I Got a Knife, and I Cut the Baby Out'

The Colorado woman who feigned a pregnancy before allegedly slicing into the belly of a pregnant woman to remove a fetus that later died was heard in court Friday, saying, "I got a knife, and I cut the baby out."

Dynel Lane, 35, did not take the stand in the Boulder County, Colorado, courtroom where she is charged with the attempted murder of Michelle Wilkins, 27, along with felony assault and unlawful termination of a pregnancy.

But Lane's version of the incident was shared via a 50-minute recording of her conversation with police after the March 18 attack at Lane's home, where Wilkins had shown up in response to Lane's Craigslist ad offering free maternity clothes, the Longmont Times Call reports.

In the recording, Lane said she and Wilkins chatted for more than an hour. Lane – who, according to prosecutors, had faked her own pregnancy for a year and faced skepticism from a partner who was threatening to leave her – said she offered to give Wilkins a baby bath, because she had received two.

After Wilkins said no, Lane told police the other woman attempted to stab her.

"She had a knife, the one I think I opened the box (with)," said Lane, referring to a package she'd received in the mail, The Denver Post reports. "I think that's how I cut my hand. I felt completely, she just, I don't even know."

Lane told detectives she asked why Wilkins wanted to hurt her. "She just kept looking at me and staring at me," she said. "Everything just seemed mixed up."

During a struggle, Lane said she began to choke Wilkins.

"She just wouldn't stop," Lane said, according to KDVR. "I'm trying to make sense of it all. After she stopped moving, I got scared."

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In tearful prior testimony, Wilkins said Lane hit her over the head with a bottle as she tried to leave. She recalled then being stabbed with broken glass and choked by Lane before she blacked out.

In Lane's version, Lane became fearful that she had killed Wilkins, and that Wilkins' seven-month-old fetus would not survive.

"What do you do in a situation like that?" she said, reports the Times Call. "I reacted."

"I can't even say it," she replied to a police question. "When she stopped moving, I just started thinking I didn't want the baby to die. I got a knife, and I cut the baby out." A doctor testified Wilkins lost more than half her blood in the attack.

Unable to revive the baby, Lane said she carried it upstairs from the basement just as her partner came home. She told him the baby was his, but after going to the hospital where she eventually was met by police, she told them she'd never been pregnant.

"It's her baby," Lane said on the recording. "It's not mine."

Lanes' defense attorney, Jennifer Beck, said during opening statements that Lane's actions were "hasty, impulsive and reckless, adding, "But it was not the result of deliberation. … She did not plan, process or prepare on how to take (Wilkins') baby and pass it off as her own."

No witnesses were called in Lane's defense. With both the prosecution and defense resting their cases on Friday, closing arguments are set for Monday before the case is turned over to a jury.

The unlawful termination of a pregnancy charge carries a penalty of up to 37 years in prison.