California Man Found Guilty of Double Murder Under Unborn Victims Law 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 4, 2006
Vista, CA (LifeNews.com) — A California man who fatally shot his girlfriend and her 27 week-old unborn child has been found guilty of double homicide in a case that saw an application of the state’s unborn victims law. That’s the same law that prosecutors used to charge Scott Peterson with two counts of murder in the killing of his wife Laci and their unborn child Conner.
In February 2004, Andree Francis Calac shot 22-year-old Marlene Magee in the face with a shotgun. At the time, both were found to have had meth in their systems.
Calac took the stand and admitted he shot Magee, but claimed that he was moving his shotgun, which he said was wedged between cushions in a couch. He says it accidentally went off.
Prosecutors say he deliberately shoved the shotgun in Magee’s face with one hand and pushed her down on the couch with the other when he pulled the trigger.
The shot killed Magee and her baby and blew off part of Calac’s left hand.
The jury returned a guilty verdict in the case, according to a North County Times report, and now Calac faces up to 80 years in prison for the murders.
California adopted a law in 1970 allowing prosecutors to charge criminals with two crimes when they kill or injure an unborn child in the course of attacking a pregnant woman. Some 33 states have similar laws, and most states, unlike California, apply the law throughout pregnancy.
The law was used in the Peterson case, which sparked a national effort to protect pregnant women and their babies from acts of violence.
Eventually Congress adopted, and President Bush signed into law, a measure that would allow for two charges when federal crimes are committed or attacks on pregnant women occur on federal lands.
