Man charged with murder in fatal wreck (mother loses unborn baby)

[Robb]

Source: Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - A Grand Junction man accused of causing injuries to a pregnant Collbran woman, in turn causing her to lose her baby hours after it was born, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder with extreme indifference.

Logan Lester Lage, 24, also faces 14 related charges for a Nov. 6 incident in which he allegedly eluded a Colorado State Patrol trooper, prompting a high-speed chase that ended when Lage’s vehicle crashed head-on with a vehicle being driven by 26-year-old Shea Lehnen.

Lehnen, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time of the crash, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section. The baby was born alive but died from asphyxia, Mesa County Chief Deputy Coroner Rob Kurtzman said. He said the collision damaged the mother’s placenta, limiting blood flow to the newborn.

“Given the heinous nature of this act, I felt the need to charge as strongly as I ethically could,” District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said Thursday. Hautzinger said the charges do not reflect a statement about abortion.

Read more: http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/11/15/111607_1a_Lage.html

[Demeter]

1. Can't Be Done

Sorry.

[havocmom]

2. Anti-choicers will keep trying. Someday they will manage to set a precedent

that unborn = person with full rights & protections (until they ARE actually born)

Colorado seems a likely place to try again for that precedent.

[eFriendly]

3. Over zealous prosecutor.

To my knowledge, first-degree murder involves premeditation to the actual killing. The charges will most likely be reduced to manslaughter in this case.

[acmavm]

4. This is in Colorado. Moonie territory. I wonder if they will take

it to court then maybe have it thrown out on appeal.

This will be real interesting.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. Unless they can conclusively prove that the accident

was the sole direct cause of damage to the placenta, AND that damage to the placenta was the sole direct cause of asphyxia, there is no justification for even a manslaughter charge.

Damned jeezers will just keep trying and failing. Insanity at its finest.