A 45-year-old woman who is accused of killing a pregnant woman to steal her baby will face the death penalty, the Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled.
In October 2022, Amber Dawn Waterman contacted Ashley Bush, who was 31 weeks pregnant, via Facebook with promises of potential employment. Waterman pled guilty last year to federal kidnapping charges, admitting that she kidnapped Bush to claim her baby as her own. Bush died of "penetrating trauma of the torso," and the child, Valkyrie Willis, died in utero.
Waterman has already been sentenced to life in prison on the federal charges. However, she attempted to argue that state capital murder charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty, were essentially charging her twice for the same crime and should not be allowed. The state supreme court disagreed.
"We hold that the federal and state statutes at issue are intended to prevent substantially different harms or evils," the supreme court wrote in its opinion, noting the differences in how the federal government defines kidnapping and how the state defines premeditated murder.
Waterman, who used a fake name, first met Bush on Oct. 28, 2022, at the Gravette, Arkansas, public library. The pair agreed to meet again on Halloween at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville, Arkansas. at around 11:45 a.m. Waterman then convinced Bush that she was taking her to meet a supervisor, got Bush to get in her truck, and kidnapped her, taking her to her residence in Pineville.
Federal prosecutors said that an autopsy found that Bush died of "penetrating trauma of the torso" and her death was classified a homicide. The baby, Valkyrie Willis, died in utero.
According to prosecutors, Waterman called her husband, Jaime Waterman to help her hide Bush's body. Jaime pled guilty to federal charges in October.
At 5 p.m., Amber Waterman called first responders, claimed she had given birth to Willis in a truck on the way to the hospital, and asked for help because the baby was not breathing.
