Autopsy Reveals Murder Victim Was Pregnant
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Los Angeles police plan to seek two homicide charges in the murder last month of a 27-year-old woman, because an autopsy has revealed that the victim was six months pregnant.
No suspects are in custody in the death of Regina Nadine Washington of Southwest Los Angeles, who was strangled with a cable on Sept. 23, police said.
But Detective Richard Marks of the LAPD’s South Bureau Homicide unit said the person arrested in Washington’s death would be booked on suspicion of two counts of murder, because the fetus would have been able to survive outside the mother’s womb.
“The law says that a fetus is the subject of murder when it is viable,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dino Fulgoni, who heads the Special Crimes Division.
Washington’s body was found in a garage behind a boarded-up building in the 8800 block of Figueroa Street. Police found cables near her body.
Prosecutors in such cases must be able to prove viability to get a murder conviction, Fulgoni said.
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