A US woman has been found guilty of killing a pregnant woman, cutting the baby from her womb and kidnapping the newborn child.
A jury convicted Lisa M. Montgomery (39) of Melvern, Kansas, on a charge of kidnapping resulting in death after she strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett, the baby's mother, and sliced open her abdomen with a kitchen knife.
At the time of the crime in December 2004, Ms Stinnett was eight months pregnant and Montgomery was pretending to family and friends that she was nine months pregnant, according to evidence presented at the trial.
The baby girl was found a day after the crime at Montgomery's home and returned to her father unharmed.
Montgomery's lawyers argued during the trial that the Kansas woman suffered from a delusional belief that she was pregnant, and said she may have been unable to differentiate between right and wrong when she killed Stinnett.
But prosecutors said Montgomery carefully planned the fatal meeting at Stinnett's home, pretending she wanted to purchase a rat terrier puppy.
Montgomery tried to pass off Stinnett's baby as her own, telling her husband she had gone into labour while on a shopping trip and having him pick her up near a Topeka health centre where she said she gave birth.
Jurors will begin deciding on punishment tomorrow, with a choice between the death penalty or life in federal prison without parole.