Mar 22, 2008 6:19 pm US/Mountain
Murder Charge Dropped In Crash With Pregnant Woman
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) ―
A man accused in a car crash in which a pregnant woman lost her baby will not face a murder charge, a judge has ruled.
Prosecutors planned to appeal. The suspect still faces other charges.
Logan Lage, 24, was charged with "first-degree murder, extreme indifference" and 16 other charges after a head-on crash Nov. 6. Authorities said his vehicle struck a vehicle driven by Shea Lehnen, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant.
Doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section to deliver Lileigh Lehnen, who was born alive but died hours later of asphyxia.
Mesa County Deputy Coroner Rob Kurtzman ruled the baby's death a homicide.
Mesa County District Judge Richard Gurley ruled this week that at the time of the crash, Lileigh Lehnen was not yet a person. He dismissed the murder charge along with charges of vehicular homicide, child abuse-recklessly causing death, vehicular eluding resulting in death, careless driving resulting in death, and vehicular assault-driving under the influence.
"I'm not happy at all," District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said Thursday. "It's not completely a surprise. It's a very murky part of the law."
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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