Life in jail for kidnap of baby cut from womb

A MAN has been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap a baby that his girlfriend had cut from their neighbour’s body.

William Hoehn (33) had been found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder over the death of Savanna Greywind in North Dakota in August 2017.

Brooke Crews admitted she sliced Ms Greywind’s baby from her womb and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Hoehn denied knowing anything about Crews’s plan to kill Ms Greywind and take her baby, but admitted hiding the newborn and giving false information to police to cover up the crime. He will have a chance of parole under the sentence handed down by state Judge Tom Olson.

Norberta Greywind, mother of 22-year-old Ms Greywind, of Fargo, North Dakota said: “We want justice. He deserves a life sentence. I don’t think this man should ever walk free.

“He betrayed our family. He looked us in the eye with a straight face while our daughter lay dead in his apartment. Please don’t ever consider letting him out.”

Hoehn had faced a maximum 21 years behind bars on the conspiracy and lying counts, but Judge Olson granted prosecutors’ request to label him a dangerous offender, enhancing his maximum sentence to life with the possibility of parole.

Crews testified during Hoehn’s trial that she concocted a fake pregnancy because she was afraid of losing him, and that when he figured out she was lying, he told her she needed to produce a baby. Crews said she took that as an ultimatum.

Crews said she never explicitly told him what she planned to do, but when he arrived home to find a newborn and a bleeding Ms Greywind, he twisted a rope around her neck to make sure she was dead. A coroner was unable to determine if strangulation or blood loss had killed her.

“Savanna would have been an amazing mother, and she was an awesome daughter,” her mother said in her victim impact statement.

“This man took something that can’t be brought back. He devastated our family. Every day is a struggle.”

Twisted rope around her neck to make sure that she was dead

Crews said during Hoehn’s trial that officers missed Ms Greywind’s body and her baby during three searches of the couple’s apartment. Police eventually found the baby alive in the apartment, and the child is in the care of her father.

Ms Greywind’s body was found by kayakers several days after she was killed, shrouded in plastic and dumped in the Red River.

Lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents the Greywind family, criticised the police later.

“How could the police have searched and failed to find Savanna’s body and the baby earlier? These questions demand answers,” she said.