Massachusetts prosecutors can file a homicide charge in the death of an unborn baby if it was medically viable before the trauma.
BOSTON — A Wellesley woman has been sentenced to two years in prison for beating a pregnant woman in a Boston nail salon so severely that she lost her 6-month old fetus.
Prosecutors say Ayanna Woodhouse was also sentenced Monday to three years of probation after pleading guilty to manslaughter and assault charges. The 26-year-old changed her plea to avoid going on trial for the April 2010 attack.
Authorities say Woodhouse kicked and punched the other woman during an argument as other people in the salon screamed at her to stop. The fetus was delivered by emergency Cesarean section, but did not survive. The medical examiner determined that the fetus died because the placenta became detached from the uterus.
Massachusetts prosecutors can file a homicide charge in the death of an unborn baby if it was medically viable before the trauma.