Pregnant Woman Guilty of Manslaughter After Being Shot in Stomach During Fight: Jury

A file photo of an ultrasound film of a 13-week fetus. (Kornn Photo/iStock)

A woman who lost her unborn child after being shot in the stomach was indicted and arrested for manslaughter on June 26 while her shooter went free.

Marshae Jones, 27, was pregnant when she was shot by 23-year-old Ebony Jemison outside Dollar General on Park Road in Fairfield, Alabama, on Dec. 4, 2018, after Jones initiated a heated argument over the baby’s father, reported al.com.

Jones, a resident of Birmingham in Jefferson County, was taken into custody on Wednesday while Jemison went free because authorities said that Jones began the fight that eventually led to the shooting of her unborn daughter.

Al.com reports that initially, Jemison was arrested for the murder, but the Jefferson County grand jury failed to indict her.

What Happened on Shooting day?

Jones was five months pregnant when the shooting happened. Doctors were able to save her, but not her unborn child.

Pleasant Grove police Lt. Danny Reid told the media that the fight between Jones and Jemison started over the unborn baby’s father.

“The investigation showed that the only true victim in this was the unborn baby,’’ Reid told AL.com.

“It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby.”

Reid said Jones picked up the fight and continued with it, and this led Jemison to defend herself, which eventually led to baby’s death.

“Let’s not lose sight that the unborn baby is the victim here,’’ he added. “She had no choice in being brought unnecessarily into a fight where she was relying on her mother for protection.”

Police said that when they arrived on the scene, Jones was not there. After being tipped off that she had been picked up and transported to Fairfield, they found her in a Fairfield convenience store. She was then taken to UAB Hospital.

Media reports say that after her indictment by the jury, Jones will now be taken to Jefferson County Jail and held on a bond of $50,000.

Another Tragic Shooting

In another shooting crime, a pregnant woman was killed while her baby survived the fatal shooting in Asheville, North Carolina, on June 26.

Asheville police homicide detectives said that 24-year-old Tiyquasha Antwonique Simuel was shot at Deaverview apartments at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to WLOS.

Simuel was shot multiple times and later died at the Mission Hospital, leaving her child motherless.

“I was watching television and I heard the commotion coming down the street,” an eyewitness, Kincaid Lamarr who resides at West Asheville, told WLOS.

“I looked out the back of my kitchen window, and I could hear the person that was in pain, talking about how bad it hurt, and it was sounding so bad, I going to call 911,” he said.

WLOS reported that Simuel before her death had testified in the first-degree murder case of Nathaniel Dixon on May 30. The media reports that the court had requested that Simuel’s identity be protected.

Dixon had killed 23-year-old Candace Pickens and critically injured her 3-year-old son, Zachaeus Waters, in May 2016.

Police have released names of the suspect as of now and are seeking public help to find the shooter.

Anyone with information can contact the authorities at APD at 828-252-1110 or Crime Stoppers, 255-5050.