By KWMU
Kansas City, Mo. – Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they will seek the death penalty for a Kansas woman accused of cutting a Missouri woman's child from the womb and claiming it as her own.
Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Ks., was charged with kidnapping resulting in death.
The infant girl survived, but Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, of Skidmore, Mo., died. She was eight months' pregnant when she was attacked in her northwest Missouri home last December.
Prosecutors say the murder and kidnapping were premeditated, heinous and cruel. U.S. Attorney Todd Graves says it took nearly a year to decide to seek the death penalty, noting "there's a lot of documentation and consideration, and it's a very organized, methodical process we go through."
If convicted of the federal charge of kidnapping leading to death, the minimum sentence she could face would be life in prison without parole.
The trial is set to begin in April.