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Suspect in baby-swiping plot pleads guilty
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By ANDALE GROSS
Associated Press Writer
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) - The second of two women charged with plotting to steal a pregnant teenager's unborn child pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and first-degree assault.
Alisa Betts, 18, of Atchison, Kan., entered the pleas in Jackson County Circuit Court, where prosecutors dismissed a third charge of felonious restraint.
Sentencing was set for Nov. 14. Betts faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
“Any time you have an agreed-upon result where you don't have to have a trial, and you don't have to put the victim through it, I think it's a good result,” Traci Stansell, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor, said after the plea hearing.
Defense attorney Ruth Petsch declined comment.
Betts' co-defendant, Lauren Gash, 20, of Odessa, Mo., pleaded guilty in July to kidnapping, assault and felonious restraint. She was sentenced in August to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors said Betts and Gash met Amanda Howard, then 18 and pregnant, over the Internet in July 2007 and lured her from her home in Clinton, about 70 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Howard, single and unemployed, got into a car with Betts and Gash on the promise that they were taking her somewhere to get baby clothes.
The teen soon realized something was wrong and tried to use her cell phone. She was sprayed with some type of pepper spray and taken to a motel in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, where she was bound and gagged with duct tape.
The plan unraveled when Betts got cold feet and called police, prosecutors said.
Officers went to the motel expecting to check on a distressed pregnant woman. They became suspicious when they saw the duct tape around Howard's neck and in her hair.
Also in the room were scissors, a sheet of plastic, a fishing tool, diapers, a blanket and a fake birth certificate. Stansell has said the room “basically was set up for surgery to take place.”
Howard gave birth to a son, Ethan, two days after the attack. She is now married, and her last name is Culley.
“She's expecting another baby, and she seems to be doing quite well,” Stansell said Thursday. She said the victim, who wasn't in court for the plea, plans to attend Betts' sentencing.
Before the attack, Gash had registered at Babies 'R' Us, held a baby shower and worn maternity clothes. Prosecutors say she also told relatives that she had given birth to a boy.
Stansell said it was difficult to tell which of the two defendants was the “ringleader” in the attack.
“Quite frankly, I think they fed off of each other,” she said.
Alisa Betts, 18, of Atchison, Kan., entered the pleas in Jackson County Circuit Court, where prosecutors dismissed a third charge of felonious restraint.
Sentencing was set for Nov. 14. Betts faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
“Any time you have an agreed-upon result where you don't have to have a trial, and you don't have to put the victim through it, I think it's a good result,” Traci Stansell, an assistant Jackson County prosecutor, said after the plea hearing.
Defense attorney Ruth Petsch declined comment.
Betts' co-defendant, Lauren Gash, 20, of Odessa, Mo., pleaded guilty in July to kidnapping, assault and felonious restraint. She was sentenced in August to eight years in prison.
Prosecutors said Betts and Gash met Amanda Howard, then 18 and pregnant, over the Internet in July 2007 and lured her from her home in Clinton, about 70 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Howard, single and unemployed, got into a car with Betts and Gash on the promise that they were taking her somewhere to get baby clothes.
The teen soon realized something was wrong and tried to use her cell phone. She was sprayed with some type of pepper spray and taken to a motel in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, where she was bound and gagged with duct tape.
The plan unraveled when Betts got cold feet and called police, prosecutors said.
Officers went to the motel expecting to check on a distressed pregnant woman. They became suspicious when they saw the duct tape around Howard's neck and in her hair.
Also in the room were scissors, a sheet of plastic, a fishing tool, diapers, a blanket and a fake birth certificate. Stansell has said the room “basically was set up for surgery to take place.”
Howard gave birth to a son, Ethan, two days after the attack. She is now married, and her last name is Culley.
“She's expecting another baby, and she seems to be doing quite well,” Stansell said Thursday. She said the victim, who wasn't in court for the plea, plans to attend Betts' sentencing.
Before the attack, Gash had registered at Babies 'R' Us, held a baby shower and worn maternity clothes. Prosecutors say she also told relatives that she had given birth to a boy.
Stansell said it was difficult to tell which of the two defendants was the “ringleader” in the attack.
“Quite frankly, I think they fed off of each other,” she said.
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