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Sunday, Sep 16, 2012 4:45 PM UTC

Wisconsin fetal abduction, murder trial to begin

By , Associated Press

Topics: From the Wires,

Wisconsin fetal abduction, murder trial to beginIn this Sept. 12, 2012 photo, Carlos Mercado and his fiancee Darla Gutierrez stand outside their Milwaukee home. The couple have been living below Mercado's son Christian, whose wife was murdered last fall by a woman who allegedly wanted to steal their full-term fetus. The wife and baby died. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)(Credit: AP)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee woman accused of killing a young mother by cutting her full-term fetus from her womb is set to stand trial nearly a year after the attack.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez is scheduled for trial Monday on two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the October 2011 deaths of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and her fetus, a boy. She has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Morales-Rodriguez had miscarriages and was desperate to give her boyfriend a son. They say she faked being pregnant, panicked as her supposed due date approached and settled on a plan to attack an expectant mother and raise the yet-unborn child as her own.

Ramirez-Cruz left behind a husband, two young daughters and a young son. She was 23 when she died.

More Carrie Antlfinger.

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