Man Sentenced to 13 Years After Forcing Girlfriend into Abortion Clinic

Eight months after forcing his pregnant girlfriend to enter an abortion clinic at gunpoint, an Ohio man was sentenced to 13 years in prison yesterday, the Associated Press reports.  Dominic Holt-Reid was charged under a fetal homicide law.
 
Holt-Reid, 28, was originally arrested in October on charges of kidnapping and concealing a weapon, according to CBS News.  Later he was also charged with attempted murder.
 
“The (state) murder statute was amended a few years back to prohibit ‘unlawful termination of a pregnancy’ in order to avoid the debate whether an unborn fetus is a ‘person’ under the law,” Prosecutor Ron O’Brien wrote in an email to the Columbus Dispatch.
 
On October 6, 2010, Holt-Reid was angry with his girlfriend, Yolanda Burgess, for not following through on an abortion appointment they had scheduled.
 

Holt-Reid removed a gun from the glove compartment of Burgess’s car and forced her to drive to the clinic, police told CBS affiliate WBNS.  Once inside, Burgess handed a note to a clinic employee, who contacted police. 
 
Burgess, then 26, did not have an abortion and later safely delivered her baby.
 
The Associated Press reports that the case’s defense attorney, Larry Shoemaker, argued that Holt-Reid was only guilty of much lesser domestic violence charges, as the mother and baby were unharmed.
 
Judge Patrick Sheeran rejected this argument, reminding Shoemaker of a text message Burgess had sent to her sister the morning of the crime.
 
“If anything happens to me, Dominic Reid did it,” Shoemaker said the text message read.
 
Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch said that Holt-Reid was remorseless and should receive the maximum 20-year sentence, while Shoemaker said Holt-Reid had pressed Burgess to abort their first child as well.
 
Holt-Reid told the judge he did take responsibility.