Kansas Woman’s Defense Team Faces Deadline in Unborn Baby Abduction

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 16, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Kansas Woman’s Defense Team Faces Deadline in Unborn Baby Abduction Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 16, 2006

Kansas City, KS (LifeNews.com) — Defense attorneys for a Kansas woman accused to strangling a Missouri woman and taking her unborn child faced a deadline Friday to submit defense motions seeking more information to present their side of the case.

Lisa Montgomery has been charged with strangling Bobbi Jo Stinnett, 23 and using a kitchen knife to cut her unborn baby from her womb. Montgomery returned to Kansas after taking the child and claimed to family members and friends the baby was hers.

Prosecutors have until May 7 to respond to any last minute defense motions Montgomery’s attorneys submitted.

Defense attorneys also have until May 15 to file any challenges to the federal death penalty act or respond to a notice from federal prosecutors that they intend to seek the death penalty in the case.

The trial begins October 23 in Kansas City. It was originally scheduled for APril 24, but defense attorneys asked for more time and wanted it to begin in 2007. Prosecutors objected.

Montgomery drove to the home of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, an eight-month pregnant woman Montgomery had met through a dog show. Stinnett was found by her mother dead and with her midsection cut open.

The indictment says Montgomery killed Stinnett "in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner."

Montgomery had been claiming she was pregnant, as she had done on previous occasions, and called her husband at home and said she delivered a baby girl.

Family members of Montgomery say they tried to warn others that Montgomery was making up stories about being pregnant.

Montgomery’s family says their concerns were heightened when they learned she had purchased a home birth kit used by midwives to help deliver babies. She reportedly wanted to purchase a baby and demanded money from her ex-husband’s new wife.

Victoria, the unborn child who survived the attack, is healthy and now living with her father.