LISTEN to the 911 call in the Longmont stabbing case

The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday night that murder charges will not be filed against Dynel Lane, the woman accused of stabbing a Longmont woman and removing a 7-month-old fetus from her womb.

Catherine Olguin, an administrative deputy with the DA’s office, confirmed that decision to The Denver Post.

Olguin said the office would not provide further information before a Friday news conference by District Attorney Stan Garnett.

That will be held at 2:30 p.m. at the Boulder County Justice Center, about an hour after Lane is scheduled to be formally charged.

Also on Friday, the Boulder County coroner is expected to release the findings of an autopsy performed on the fetus.

Police said Lane, who was a Colorado certified nurse’s aide from 2010 to 2012, attacked Wilkins, 26, on March 18 at Lane’s apartment in the 1600 block of Green Place in Longmont. Wilkins went to the home at about 11:51 a.m. to respond to a Craigslist ad of baby clothes for sale.

Lane’s husband, David Ridley, came home at 2:15 p.m. to take his wife to a prenatal checkup. He was met at the stairs by Lane, who was covered in blood.

She told her husband that she had a miscarriage and that the baby was in the bathtub upstairs. Ridley said he “rubbed the baby slightly then rolled it over to hear and see it take a gasping breath.”

He then drove his wife and the baby to the hospital.

Wilkins, wounded in the basement, called 911 at 2:41 p.m. Lane was arrested at Longmont United Hospital at 7:46 p.m.

POLICE REPORT: Arrest report for Dynel Lane

Lane, 34, made her first court appearance on March 19 at the Boulder County jail, where a judge ordered her held on $2 million bail. She is being held on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and child abuse knowingly and recklessly resulting in death.

Wilkins, who was admitted in critical condition, was released from Longmont United Hospital on Tuesday.

In a news conference last week, Garnett said that if Lane was not charged with murder she could face a count related to the unwanted termination of a pregnancy, a class three felony, in the fetus’ death.

“It’s really important that we get it right and that we analyze both the legal aspects — which are complicated — and also the factual scenario,” Garnett said then.

“Under Colorado law, essentially, there is no way murder charges can be brought if it’s not established that the fetus lived as a child outside the body of the mother,” he said.

David Beller, a Denver defense attorney, says the charges present a complex legal challenge and deciding which ones to file is “incredibly complicated.”

“In my experience, doctors (can) tell pretty readily whether or not the baby actually took a breath and if the lungs expanded,” he said. “I think the legal questions are going to turn to her conduct after the fact.”

Beller said that “multiple issues” were likely at play in deciding what charges to file. He added that while there is a great deal of legal precedent in fetal death cases, there isn’t much that equates to last week’s case.

Dr. Clyde Wright, a neonatologist who works out of University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado, says a fetus as far along as Wilkins’ — 34 weeks — has about a 98 percent chance of survival if born into proper medical care.

“I think it’s safe to say for any indication, if a mom comes in at 34 weeks we are very confident with the prognosis of that baby,” he said. “It would be shocking to have a routine 34-week baby not survive.”

Babies are considered full term at 37 weeks, Wright said, and a delivery is considered full term at 40 weeks. He said that a 34-week-old fetus would likely survive even if delivered in a developing country where less medical technology is available than the U.S.