A Bronx, New York woman was convicted of killing her pregnant childhood friend, Angelikque Sutton. The defense didn’t believe Ashleigh Wade, who they described as extremely emotionally disturbed, argued she should not be found guilty of kidnapping because she actually believed the baby to be her own.
Wade murdered Angelikque in Wade’s apartment on November 20, 2015, after the two former acquaintances had recently reconnected on Facebook. They even bonded over being pregnant at the same time.
Angelikque, the daughter of a bishop, was going to be married at the courthouse later that day. But, she stopped by Wade’s apartment to pick up a gift she told Angelikque to come pick up.
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Wade, who knew she was not actually pregnant, lured Angelikque to her home and started stabbing and slashing her in the face and neck. She even cut Angelikque’s larynx so that she could not scream. Angelikque, who was left with 50 wounds, fought back but eventually bled to death.
During the first part of the attack, all of Angelikque’s injuries were from the neck up. Then Wade took a paring knife to Angelikque’s abdomen and cut out her uterus. Afterwards, she removed the baby and discarded the organ.
Once Wade had the baby, named Jenasis, she made a bottle of formula for the newborn, and wrapped her up. She then told her boyfriend she had just given birth but that she’d also done something terrible.
In the aftermath of the murder, Wade gave a written statement to detectives. Saying she had intended to rescue the baby because she had lost her own in what turned out to be an imaginary pregnancy.
“I sat there thinking about my child that died and thought that I couldn’t have any more children die so I rescued the baby,” she wrote. “Holding her felt right and I believed that the little girl was mine.”
She later said parts of the statement were coerced. But at trial, she insisted that she really did believe the baby was her own.
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“When I had the baby I remembered it to be mine,” she testified.
Wade, who also testified about her rough and abusive upbringing, had several imagined pregnancies before the one that brought her into contact with Angelikque.
Today, Jenasis is a healthy child.
The vitctim’s mother, Deborah Sutton, wiped tears as the verdict was read but left the courthouse beaming.
The twisted murderer was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on November 15, 2017.
“I just want to say that I’m so sorry,” killer Ashleigh Wade sobbed hysterically as she addressed the court in a self-serving plea for mercy. “I’m so sorry. There are no words to express how sorry I am. I’m sorry for hurting so many people. I wish I knew why. I wish I understood, but I don’t know why, and I try so hard.”
[…] SEE ALSO: Ashleigh Wade Pretended To Be Pregnant Before Killing Her Pregnant Friend And Stealing Her Baby […]