A pregnant woman in the United States survived a nightmarish ordeal after an acquaintance lured her to a home and attempted to cut her unborn baby from her womb with a box cutter.
A Grisly Assault in Washington
Veronica Deramous met Teka Adams at a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. and later invited her to her home. On arrival, Deramous launched a vicious and premeditated attack on the expectant mother. Using a box cutter, she slashed open Teka's abdomen in a horrific attempt to steal the foetus.
In an almost unimaginable act of courage and desperation, Teka Adams managed to flee the house. She was holding her slashed stomach closed, desperately keeping both her own intestines and her baby inside her body as she escaped.
Emergency Delivery and Courtroom Confrontation
Rushed to hospital on December 6, 2009, Teka's baby was delivered via emergency Caesarean section. In a testament to their survival, Teka named her newborn daughter Miracle. Deramous was arrested the same day and indicted on an attempted murder charge.
During the 2010 court proceedings at Prince George's County Circuit Court, Teka addressed her attacker directly. She told Deramous that both she and Miracle would have died had she stayed any longer. Holding her baby, she said, "You see her? She beautiful. You could've took that from me." She later told Deramous to "rot forever" in prison.
Deramous presented a contradictory account, claiming Teka had wanted an abortion and they had arranged for Deramous to buy the baby for $5,000. She alleged a fight broke out and said she could not remember the morning of the escape due to drinking whisky.
Justice Served with Lengthy Prison Sentences
The prosecution, led by Assistant State's Attorney Scott Carrington, dismissed Deramous's story, stating she was lying from "the moment she opened her mouth."
Judge C. Philip Nichols Jr. accepted Deramous's guilty plea to first-degree assault and sentenced her to 25 years in prison. He also accepted a guilty plea to false imprisonment under the Alford doctrine—where a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges the prosecution's evidence is strong—and handed down a life sentence with all but 15 years suspended.
Reflecting on the outcome, a prosecutor involved stated, "I think this is a win all the way around for the victim and the community." The case remains a shocking example of violent crime and a mother's fierce fight for survival.
