Thread: District attorney: No additional murder charges in Newman ca

District attorney: No additional murder charges in Newman case
By Scott Jenkins

Salisbury Post

The man charged with causing a wreck that killed a pregnant Rowan County woman and her unborn child will not face a second murder charge, Rowan County District Attorney Bill Kenerly said Thursday.

After a review of medical records, the state Medical Examiner's Office in Charlotte determined that Leeanna Newman's baby did not live outside her body after the Feb. 5 wreck in Landis, Kenerly said.

"The medical information we have is that it was not a viable fetus and therefore it's not a homicide under North Carolina law, so there will not be a charge related to the unborn child," Kenerly said.

Twenty-year-old Newman, who was eight months pregnant, died shortly after the wreck at Carolinas Medical Center. Doctors there performed an emergency Caesarean section trying to save the baby.

"It was not delivered alive," Kenerly said, "and that's what the law requires."

Rigo Verto Guillen Martinez faces one count of second-degree murder in Newman's death and charges of driving while impaired and hit and run causing property damage, a misdemeanor connected to an earlier incident in Kannapolis. The charges go before a grand jury Monday.

Police said Martinez, of 108 Airport Road in Kannapolis, was driving a 1992 Jeep Cherokee north on Main Street faster than 70 mph when he tried to turn onto Highland Avenue and hit Leeanna Newman's Saturn head-on as she drove south.

Newman's 21-month-old daughter, Mallory, was buckled into a child safety seat and survived the crash with only minor injuries.

Shortly before the wreck, a Kannapolis Police officer saw Martinez driving erratically in north Kannapolis and got reports that he had hit two other cars in minor accidents, police said.

Officer David Home followed Martinez and the Kannapolis Police Department was investigating whether he engaged in a pursuit as some witnesses said. Maj. Woody Chavis could not be reached Thursday afternoon.

Martinez remained at Carolinas Medical Center until Feb. 14, when he was released from the hospital and served arrest warrants in Rowan County. He placed under a $1 million bond and taken to Central Prison in Raleigh, which has medical facilities, because both of his legs were broken.

Authorities later said Martinez had entered the country illegally from Mexico and had been arrested numerous times using at least half a dozen different names.

Kenerly said Thursday Martinez has also been served with a warrant for probation violation stemming from a Rowan County conviction of assaulting a law enforcement officer.

probation violation

He gets away with murdering an unborn baby but they serve his with probation violation.

I am sorry, this is terribly wrong, and 8th month fetus is a viable fetus no matter what this man says, I am sure it would have made it under any other circumstances besides massive trama to the mother and fetus both, this is totally outlandish. Laci Perterson was only 8 months pregnant I believe, Scott was charged with 2 murders as well he should have been, so to, this criminal alien should have been charged with 2 homicides, if it had been anyone besides an illegal, I believe they would have been charged with 2 instead of one death!

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11096390/detail.html

Man Won't Face Charges In Unborn Baby's Death In Landis Crash

POSTED: 4:26 pm EST February 23, 2007
UPDATED: 5:46 pm EST February 23, 2007

SALISBURY, N.C. -- The man accused of driving drunk and crashing into a car head-on, killing a pregnant woman, will not be charged in the death of her unborn baby girl.

Authorities say Carlos Guillen Martinez, 33, was speeding to elude a Kannapolis police officer when he crashed into 20-year-old Leeanna Newman on South Main Street in Landis on Feb. 6.

Newman was eight months pregnant and her baby was delivered by an emergency cesarean section at Carolinas Medical Center after the wreck, but doctors found she had also already died.

Martinez, an illegal immigrant that has already been deported twice, is charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of driving while impaired.

State Representative Fred Steen is from Landis, and he believes the suspect should be charged in both deaths.

"It's very disappointing to me that North Carolina doesn't have that law on the books. If California has it, so should we have that," he said.

District Attorney Bill Kennerly says Martinez faces only one charge of murder because the baby never took a breath outside the womb.

"It was not delivered alive and that's what the law requires," he said.

Steen wants to change that law. He's sponsoring legislation that would classify an unborn baby as another person in a murder case.

Still, Steen is thankful the suspect faces at least one murder charge.

"We do understand he'll be charged with something, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be charged with the death of the unborn baby as well," he said.

Originally Posted by minnie_girl65

After a review of medical records, the state Medical Examiner's Office in Charlotte determined that Leeanna Newman's baby did not live outside her body after the Feb. 5 wreck in Landis, Kenerly said.

"The medical information we have is that it was not a viable fetus and therefore it's not a homicide under North Carolina law, so there will not be a charge related to the unborn child," Kenerly said.

Twenty-year-old Newman, who was eight months pregnant, died shortly after the wreck at Carolinas Medical Center. Doctors there performed an emergency Caesarean section trying to save the baby.

"It was not delivered alive," Kenerly said, "and that's what the law requires."
.

But a baby CAN most certainly live after 8 months in the womb. It probably wasn't delivered alive because this criminal killed it when he killed the mother. This is such BS! Once again, the criminal's rights are of more concern than the victim's.