The fate of a Bronx woman on trial for butchering a former childhood pal in what prosecutors say was a planned attempt to steal her unborn baby is now in the hands of a jury.
The panel of five men and seven women will now determine whether or not Ashleigh Wade, who says she doesn’t remember cutting open the late-term pregnant Angelikque Sutton, is guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and criminal possession of a weapon.
Defense attorney Amy Attias Wednesday begged the jurors to convict her 24-year-old client of manslaughter, arguing Wade was suffering from extreme emotional distress when she knifed Sutton some 50 times in her Bronx apartment back in Nov. 2015.
Prosecutor Meredith Holtzman argued that Wade intended all along to harvest the child from Sutton’s womb all along to cover up her own pregnancy charade.
If convicted on first-degree murder charges, Wade faces up to life behind bars without the chance for parole.