Wisconsin fetal abduction, murder trial to begin

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jury selection is expected to start for a Milwaukee woman accused of killing a young mother by cutting her full-term fetus from her womb.

Annette Morales-Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the October 2011 deaths of Maritza Ramirez-Cruz and her fetus, a boy.

Attorneys plan to pick 12 jurors plus two alternates on Monday.

Prosecutors say Morales-Rodriguez had miscarriages and was desperate to give her boyfriend a son. They say she faked being pregnant, panicked as her supposed due date approached and settled on a plan to attack an expectant mother and raise the yet-unborn child as her own.

Ramirez-Cruz left behind a husband, two young daughters and a young son. She was 23 when she died.

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