Ashleigh Wade Is Sentenced For Killing Her Friend

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A Bronx woman accused of murdering her pregnant friend and removing her fetus from her womb was sentenced Wednesday to a minimum sentence of 40 years and a maximum of life in prison.

"I just want to say I'm really sorry," Ashleigh Wade said crying in her speech to ask the court for leniency. "So sorry. There are no words to express how sorry I am. Sorry for hurting so many people. I wish I knew why, but I don't know why, and I try to understand it.”

Wade, 24, killed Angelikque Sutton with 50 stab wounds on his wedding day in November 2015. After taking his life, he cut his belly, removed the fetus and pretended he had just been born. Miraculously, the emergency services were able to keep the newborn alive, who was baptized Jenasis and will be 2 years old next Monday.

The youngest was in the living room in the arms of her father Patrick Bradley when her mother's convicted murderer was sentenced.

"Jenasis will be tragically marked by her birth," said Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy. "Where is my mother? How she died? When she died? Her birth will be tainted forever."

The judge called Wade's assault brutal and dismissed the defense attorney's repeated arguments that his mental powers are impaired. "These actions were not impulsive, they were carefully planned and investigated," said the judge. "The cutting of the uterus with precision shows that he studied how to kill Angelikque."

According to the testimonies presented at the trial, Wade reconnected with Sutton, who had been a schoolmate, through social networks and pretended to be pregnant like her. The day Sutton was going to marry Bradley, Wade looked for his friend with the excuse of inviting her to pick up some supposed gifts for the baby who was on the way. It was then that he murdered her.

Once the court released the sentence, the victim's parents smiled with relief. "I'm glad justice has been done, I'm glad," said the father, Bishop William Sutton, as he left court.