BROOKLYN, New York, February 5, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Torey Branch punched his seven-month-pregnant girlfriend in the abdomen so hard and so repeatedly that she miscarried, which was his intention.
However, Branch will not be charged with murder, nor with manslaughter, in the intentional, premeditated, coordinated killing of his baby.
Branch is on trial for “forced abortion.”
Wednesday, jurors watched a surveillance video of the murder. The victim, Mia Jones, burst into uncontrollable tears when the video was shown.
“I felt like I was going to die,” the 35-year-old mother of four testified, after realizing Branch's intentions. The two had dated on and off for nine years.
Mia's crying was so heart-wrenching that the judge, Alexander Jeong, stopped the trial and had the jury step out of the courtroom, to give Mia time to compose herself.
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Mia was beaten by Branch and a cohort and left unconscious, lying in a pool of blood. Upon gaining consciousness, Mia told jurors, “I just lay there, holding my breath, because I didn't want them to know I was still alive.”
Mia had repeatedly refused Branch's attempts to schedule an abortion of their baby, whom she was going to name Kennedy Victoria. Mia also told Branch that she was going to tell Branch's other girlfriend about the baby.
Branch set up his girlfriend by telling her he wanted to meet with her and was bringing her shrimp and fries. Instead, Branch's cohort arrived and began beating and choking Mia. Then Branch himself arrived and finished the job of killing his child.
Kennedy Victoria died from the beating. Mia had to undergo a c-section to deliver the child's dead body.
Attorney Stephen Casey, chief counsel for the Texas Center for the Defense of Life, commented to LifeSiteNews, “This case makes plainly obvious what America has become: a nation without consequences that ignores the preciousness of unborn life.”
“This man murdered that innocent child and battered the baby's mother,” the pro-life lawyer said. “How far we have drifted from the days where men would consider 'women and children first'? Now, men are avoiding their responsibilities.”
Casey concluded, “This man should go to jail for murder and assault.”
Mia's story of men beating their pregnant girlfriends because they won't abort is not uncommon. Last January, a 22-year-old New Yorker killed a 14-year-old girl, set her body on fire, placed her charred remains in a suitcase, and threw it into the ocean because she refused to abort their baby.
A Pennsylvania man strangled his 24-year-old girlfriend, killing her and their unborn baby. And a Louisiana man murdered his ex-girlfriend, and their baby she was carrying, after she refused to abort the growing child.
Despite killing both his ex-lover and their baby, the Louisiana man, Alfred E. Smith, was convicted only of second-degree murder.
