PHILADELPHIA, May 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Adrienne Moton, one of Kermit Gosnell's former employees whose testimony helped convict the abortionist of three cases of first-degree murder, is now a free woman.
Judge Benjamin Lerner released Moton this morning, after sentencing her to 28 months time served.
Judge Lerner specifically cited her testimony and cooperation with prosecutors in the Gosnell case for her early release.
Her father shouted out “Hallelujah!” after the ruling. Judge Lerner reportedly admonished him for the outburst.
Moton confessed to killing 10 babies using the method Gosnell taught her in a plea bargain before the trial. She testified that “Baby D” was born alive in a toilet and struggled to swim out before having its spinal cord severed. Her testimony resulted in Gosnell receiving three consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.
She said this morning that her role in the killings troubled her “to [her] soul,” according to J.D. Mullane, a reporter with the Bucks County (PA) Courier Times, who has covered the case from the beginning.
Another former employee, 55-year-old Elizabeth Hampton, said Gosnell would entice workers to take part in infanticide by giving them an extra $20 for each “abortion.”
Hampton received one year of probation on Tuesday morning after pleading guilty to perjury, admitting she lied to the grand jury in 2009. As a child, she had been in a foster care home with the woman who would become Gosnell's third wife, Pearl. She and her common law husband live in a home owned by Gosnell, rent-free.
Several of Kermit Gosnell's former employees, whose testimony help convict him of first-degree murder, were scheduled to be sentenced in a Philadelphia courtroom this morning.
Lynda Williams, who administered a fatal overdose to 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, has had her sentencing deferred until July 1, due to pending charges that she helped Gosnell illegally distribute prescription drugs.
The sentencing of other two Gosnell employees was also postponed due to drug charges. Tina Baldwin and Sherry West will be sentenced on June 24.
Philadelphia authorities discovered Gosnell's other crimes after raiding his abortion facility on the grounds that he was operating a “pill mill” that distributed illegal narcotics.
West's lawyer, Michael Wallace, has said Gosnell surrounded himself with mentally damaged women and exercised hypnotic, almost “Svengali control” over them. Both West and Williams had nervous breakdowns before going to work at the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia, a location that prosecutors dubbed a “house of horrors” for its filthy conditions and grisly practices.
Gosnell's wife, Pearl, is before the judge as of this writing. She alone did not testify against her husband during the trial. Neither she nor any other member of his family appeared by his side, or anywhere in court, for the entire duration of the proceedings.