Man gets life sentence in baby snatching
FARGO, N.D. — A North Dakota man was sentenced Monday to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap a baby that his girlfriend had cut from their neighbor’s body and lying to police about it, but with a chance at parole that the slain woman’s mother said he should not have.
“We want justice. He deserves a life sentence. I don’t think this man should ever walk free,” Norberta Greywind, mother of 22-year-old Savanna Greywind of Fargo, said of William Hoehn. “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, 33, was found innocent last month of conspiracy to commit murder in Savanna Greywind’s August 2017 death. Brooke Crews admitted that she sliced Greywind’s baby from her womb and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in that killing.
Hoehn denied knowing anything about Crews’ plan to kill Greywind and take her baby. But he admitted to hiding the newborn and giving false information to law enforcement to cover up the crime.
Hoehn apologized during the hearing, saying his actions were “impossible to justify.”
Hoehn had faced a maximum 21 years behind bars on the conspiracy and lying counts, but state Judge Tom Olson on Monday granted prosecutors’ request to label Hoehn a dangerous offender, enhancing his maximum sentence to life with the possibility of parole.
Defense attorney Daniel Borgen, who had asked for a seven-year prison sentence, could not immediately be reached for comment.