Pregnant Woman Is Beaten; 4 Charged With Death of Fetus

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —  Three young men hired by a pregnant woman’s boyfriend kicked her in the belly and killed the baby, prosecutors said Thursday as they brought murder charges in the first test of Arkansas’ new Fetal Protection Law.

The law, passed this year, makes it a crime to injure a fetus more than 12 weeks old. It allows exceptions for abortions.

Without the law, prosecutors would have had to limit the charges to crimes against the pregnant woman, who was badly beaten. In this case, the boyfriend and the alleged assailants could receive the death penalty if convicted.

Shawana Pace, who was due to give birth any day, said she pleaded for the baby’s life as she was kicked, choked and hit on Aug. 26. She said one of the attackers told her, “Your baby is dying tonight.”

Pace, a junior studying psychology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, told police she believed the attack was set up by her boyfriend, Erik Bullock, 29. The assault occurred after she, her 5-year-old son and Bullock arrived at Bullock’s home.

Pace told police that Bullock had said he did not want children. The 5-year-old boy, who is not Bullock’s son, was unharmed.

Police said Bullock hired three of his friends--Eric Beulah, 20; Derrick Witherspoon, 17; and Lonnie Beulah, 15, all brothers from Pine Bluff--to stage a robbery at his house.