Man Charged With Cutting Infant out of Womb of N.D. Woman Pleads Guilty to Kidnapping

William Hoehn pleaded guilty to two lesser charges in the 2017 death of a pregnant Fargo woman but will still stand trial for conspiracy to commit murder

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Photo: Savanna Lafontaine-Greywind/Facebook

The North Dakota man accused of helping his former girlfriend kill an expectant Fargo mom for her unborn baby in 2017 pleaded guilty Tuesday to two lesser charges — but still faces trial later this month for conspiracy to commit murder, PEOPLE confirms.

In Cass County District Court Tuesday, William Hoehn, 33, of Fargo, pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and providing false information to authorities in the death of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 22, online court records show.

Hoehn was ordered held without bail in Cass County Jail, where he has been held since his 2017 arrest, pending his sentencing on the kidnapping and false information charges, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

He is still scheduled to stand trial for conspiracy to commit murder in LaFontaine-Greywind’s death, court records show. He pleaded not guilty to that charge in 2017.

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Cass County Sheriff's Office/AP

His trial is expected to begin Sept. 18.

In December 2017, Hoehn’s former girlfriend, Brooke Crews, 39, pleaded guilty to murdering LaFontaine-Greywind. In February, she was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

LaFontaine-Greywind was eight months pregnant when Crews, her neighbor, lured her to her apartment in the building where they lived on Aug. 19, 2017, court records show.

Prosecutors said Crews admitted that she fought with the young woman before she cut open her womb and took her unborn baby, local station WDAZ reported.

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Crews admitted that she took the baby from LaFontaine-Greywind while the young woman was alive, prosecutors had said in court, TwinCities.com- Pioneer Press reported.

The baby, Haisley Jo, survived and lives with her father, Ashton Matheny, who had planned to marry LaFontaine-Greywind and build a life with her and their daughter. “Now I’m mom and dad,” he told PEOPLE previously.

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Peter Bohler

Calls to Hoehn’s attorney were not immediately returned.

In his first interview since his 2017 arrest, in August, Hoehn told The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, “I should’ve called police that night.”

Hoehn said he found Crews cleaning up blood in the bathroom.

Crews, who he says told him she was pregnant, showed him a newborn, saying, “This is our baby, this is our family,” Hoehn told police, according to court records.

Instead, he told the outlet that he took bloody shoes and towels from the apartment and threw them in a dumpster.

LaFontaine-Greywind’s body was found eight days later, wrapped in plastic, in the nearby Red River. Authorities found the baby alive and with Crews.

In the interview, Hoehn would not reveal whether he helped murder and dispose of LaFontaine-Greywind’s body.

While he told The Forum that Crews “had anger issues,” he said he didn’t think she was “crazy to the point of doing something like this.”

He said he feels “anxious” about his upcoming trial.

“I’m terrified,” he told The Forum. “It looks scary from here.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Haisley Jo and Ashton with child-raising expenses.

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