Brutal Attack Brings Murder Conviction.(Brief Article)

Often justice is not swift, but it was sure last month for Erik Bullock. A jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, convicted Bullock of murder for hiring men to beat his pregnant girlfriend and kill her unborn child.

The victims were Shiwona Pace and her unborn baby, whom she had named Heaven LeShay when an ultrasound revealed that she was going to have a little girl. Heaven was stillborn after Ms. Pace was severely beaten August 26, 1999, by Eric Beulah (who is already serving a 40-year prison sentence) and allegedly Derrick Witherspoon and Lonnie Beulah, who are also awaiting trial on murder charges.

The baby was due to be born the day after the attack.

The case was the first brought under Arkansas's Fetal Protection Act, which went into effect July 30, 1999. The law allows prosecutors to bring charges against those who kill or injure an unborn child against the mother's will for the first time since the state's previous unborn victims' law was repealed in 1964. The law does not cover babies killed by legal abortion or those who are younger than 12 weeks' gestational age.

Shiwona Pace was a 23-year-old student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock when she was so viciously assaulted she was left with a broken left wrist, black eye, bruised face, and a spleen that had to be removed.

Bullock received a sentence of life in prison. The jury also convicted the 30-year-old Bullock of first-degree battery, which carries a 20-year sentence.

According to the Associated Press (AP), prosecutors told jurors in closing arguments that Bullock was a controlling man who feared Pace's pregnancy would disrupt his relationship with another woman. They said Bullock paid the men $400 - - total - - to beat Pace.