A North Dakota court cancels the life sentence of a man whose girlfriend cut the baby out of his neighbor's belly



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A man sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping a baby cut into the belly of his neighbor by his girlfriend and who would have lied to the police about it will be the subject of a new hearing after the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the initial sentence did not correspond to the elements of the crime.

William Hoehn, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an abduction, was sentenced to life imprisonment because the judge of the case responded to the prosecutor's request to appoint him as a dangerous special offender, punishable by life imprisonment.

Savanna Greywind was eight months pregnant when she disappeared from her North Fargo apartment in August 2017. Her body was then returned to Red River. His baby had been cut from his belly but had survived the attack.

Savanna Greywind, 22, was eight months pregnant when she was murdered by her neighbor. Her baby was cut from the stomach in August 2017. Her body was found in Red River Lake.

Savanna Greywind, 22, was eight months pregnant when she was murdered by her neighbor. Her baby was cut from the stomach in August 2017. Her body was found in Red River Lake.
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Rather than imposing the maximum sentence of 21 years of imprisonment to the charge of kidnapping, Judge Tom Olson has designated Hoehn as a special dangerous offender, punishable by the maximum sentence for life with the possibility of parole, to which he would be eligible in 25 to 30 years. years.

The prosecutor's request was based on Hoehn's previous conviction in 2012 of the sexual abuse of which his son had suffered multiple skull fractures after being confided to Hoehn.

Hoehn, 34, appealed his sentence, saying the district court incorrectly described him as a dangerous offender because the crimes for which he pleaded guilty did not seriously endanger the life of the offender. 39; another and he had no previous similar conviction. Hoehn also claimed that the district court had not adequately informed him of the possible consequences of convicted guilty pleas, KFYR reported, citing court documents.

A woman who killed her neighbor by cutting BABY to WOMB said that she had not "explicitly" alerted her ex

The state Supreme Court upheld the conviction, but said that a comparison of the elements of the crime of kidnapping with the allegation of child abuse dating from 2012 does not did not support the conclusion that the two offenses were comparable. A special dangerous offender label was therefore unfounded.

Hoehn's defense attorney, Kiara Kraus-Parr, said that it was "a relatively clear case" and that she had been demonstrating that she was "in the dark." a "cautious optimism".

"I think the state has exceeded its targets, with respect to the special dangerous offender," she told The Associated Press.

Hoehn's minutes may come up within two weeks, despite the prosecution filing a new hearing.

Brooke Crews, Hoehn's girlfriend, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Crews, 40, told the jury in Hoehn's lawsuit that she was simulating pregnancy because she feared that Hoehn would terminate their relationship, but as soon as he discovered that he was not pregnant. she was lying, he told her that she needed to "produce a baby", which Crews interpreted as an "ultimatum."

The teams said that she had never explicitly told Hoehn what she was going to do, but when he arrived home, he saw Greywind bleed and die, with his neonate, and he twisted a rope around Greywind's neck to make sure that she was dead. A coroner could not determine if the cause of death was strangulation or blood loss.

Hoehn denied knowing everything about Crews' plan to kill Greywind and take away his baby, but he admitted to hiding the newborn and giving false information to law enforcement to conceal the crime.

Greywind, 22, was a member of the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe and her family had ties to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

His death provoked outrage from Amerindian activists who urged Congress to pass a bill, Savanna's Act, whose president was then the spearhead. Heidi Heitkamp, ​​a democrat. The bill, which was still under study, would improve tribes' access to federal crime databases and create standardized protocols for responding to cases of murdered and missing American Indigenous women.

Haisley Jo, the 2-year-old daughter of Greywind, lives with her grandparents near Red River, not far from the same place where her body was found.

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Norberta Greywind, Haisley Jo's grandmother, begged the court to impose the maximum sentence on Hoehn and no longer let him free himself.

"My life has changed forever." As for Savanna's daughter, this man tried to take her to raise him as his, saying that the days he spent with my granddaughter were been the happiest days of his life How are you doing? " she said when sentencing.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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