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Jury selection set to begin for Dynel Lane

Posted at 4:01 AM, Feb 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-11 14:18:25-05

Jury selection begins Thursday for the nurse's aide accused of luring a pregnant woman to her home, then cutting the victim's unborn baby from her womb and leaving her for dead.

Lawyers for Dynel Lane filed a motionfor a change of venue, but the judge refused to move the case.

About 300 potential jurors will fill out questionnaires Thursday and be questioned Friday.

Jury selection should take a few days. Opening statements are expected next Wednesday.

Dynel Lane has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, unlawful termination of a pregnancy and multiple counts of felony assault.

The victim, Michelle Wilkins, was seven months pregnant when she was attacked March 18, 2015 after going to Lane's house to look at some maternity clothes that had been advertised on Craigslist.

In a brief filed by the Boulder County District Attorney's Office in April, prosecutors said Lane spent an hour talking to Wilkins before she lured her down to the basement.

Wilkins told Dr. Phil last year, "I started walking towards the door. I was at the door and ready to walk outside and she says, 'Oh, I have some girl clothes, downstairs, that somebody gave me. I found out I was having a boy. Do you want them?' And intuitively I have that sensation wash over me, 'I have everything I need,' but for fear of being impolite, I decided to stay," Wilkins said of the moments before she was attacked. "I think about that moment a lot."

The DA says Lane attacked Wilkins with a lava lamp, breaking it over her head. She then stabbed Wilkins in the neck with the broken glass, cut her abdomen and took her baby.

Wilkins regained consciousness and called police. She survived, her baby, later named Aurora, did not.

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