Emotional service for pregnant woman killed for unborn child

By Larry Celona, Tom Wilson, Philip Messing and Chris Perez

November 22, 2015 

Ashleigh Wade, left, is accused of killing her nine-months-pregnant friend Angelikque Sutton, right, and taking her baby from her womb. Photo: Facebook

The baby who was ripped from her murdered mother’s womb last week was under police guard at a Bronx hospital Sunday.

The 8-pound, 2-ounce infant, named Genesis, was being guarded by an NYPD officer who stood outside her hospital room at Montefiore Medical Center.

Across town, the boyfriend and parents of her slain mother, Angelikque Sutton, 22, wept during an emotional church service at Zion Hill Pentecostal Church in Morrisania.

“Have you ever got so devastated you couldn’t pray, couldn’t pick up a Bible and read the scriptures?” Sutton’s father, Bishop William Sutton, told his congregation as he remembered the life of his daughter, who was 8¹/₂ months pregnant when she was killed for her child.

Angelikque Sutton was stabbed to death Friday, and Genesis was cut from her womb moments later. The victim’s childhood friend, Ashleigh Wade, 22, is accused of feigning pregnancy and killing Sutton to take the child. She was charged with murder and manslaughter.

Bishop Sutton described seeing his granddaughter for the first time.

“I went to the hospital last night,” he said. “Thank you, Jesus, a healthy baby, 8 pounds, 2 ounces.”

“We cry a little, we pray a little,” the grandfather added as worshippers intermittently shouted, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”

“The Lord told me, he told me last night, ‘She is with me.’ Praise God, he will give us the strength to go on through.”

Patrick Bradley, the father of Genesis, was at the church crying hysterically as he was consoled by family members.

Vernon Geberth, a retired NYPD detective lieutenant commander who has extensively researched “fetal kidnapping,” told The Post that Wade’s alleged efforts to fake a pregnancy echoed every other instance he had seen of the shocking crime.

He said there had been 17 previous cases of fetal kidnapping in the United States since 1987.

“All 17 cases showed significant planning and preparation,” Geberth said, describing the crimes as “unimaginably evil.”

“The primary motivation is to sustain a relationship with a male partner by providing them with a child,” he said. “Most of the offenders have convinced family members that they are pregnant. They gain weight, they download sonograms or build nurseries.”

Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan and Kevin Sheehan