A court has sentenced a young woman to almost 57 years in prison for killing a pregnant woman to steal her unborn baby by cutting it from her womb.
The court in the town of Tijucas in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina sentenced Rozalba Maria Grime, 27, to 56 years and 10 months in prison on Wednesday, 24th November.
The trial, which lasted some 15 hours, resulted in the young woman being found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted murder of a baby, concealment of a corpse, obstruction of justice, abduction of a minor and denying the rights of a newborn.
The crime took place in the town of Canelinha on 27th August last year, and the defendant has been in custody since then.
During the trial by jury, she told the court how she had planned the crime and had studied how to remove the unborn child from the mother’s womb.
She also told how she had researched how to simulate the symptoms of pregnancy and childbirth.
According to the defendant herself, she lured the victim to an abandoned pottery, where there were bricks to strike her on the head with.
According to investigators, 36-weeks-pregnant teacher Flavia Godinho Mafra, 24, died after being struck several times on the head with a brick.
Her belly was cut with a utility knife and her unborn baby was removed from her womb before her body was hidden in a kiln. According to the post-mortem, she died of a haemorrhage.
The state prosecutor said the victim and the defendant knew each other.
Following the crime, the perpetrator went with her partner, who believed at the time she had been pregnant and had just given birth, to hospital in Canelinha.
There, she told staff she had just given birth on a thoroughfare.
However, the hospital staff were suspicious of the woman’s account and called the police.
Her partner was initially suspected of involvement in the crime. However, he was released from custody on 7th October last year and acquitted on 27th July this year.
The prosecutor at the time concluded that he genuinely thought his partner had been pregnant.
The woman’s defence may appeal the sentence.
