Restaurateur sentenced to 9 years in prison for 2009 miscarriage

Marc Cota-Robles Image
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Restaurateur sentenced to 9 years in prison for 2009 miscarriage
A woman spoke during a sentencing hearing for her ex-boyfriend, who previously pleaded no contest for trying to kill her unborn child in 2009.

LOS ANGELES -- Gail Greaves spoke in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday morning, saying she viewed her 2009 pregnancy - at age 39 - as a blessing.

She watched as her former boyfriend, Joshua Woodward, was sentenced to nine years in prison after he pleaded no contest to attempted murder for trying to kill her unborn child seven years ago.

"You're disgusting. I hope that you can find the truth within your heart and in your soul, and just be honest," she said. "You're drugging the drink you gave me, drugging my food...do you really not understand what you've done to me?"

Greaves said Woodward begged her to have an abortion, even offering money, before he took her choice away.

Prosecutors said Woodward used a drug called Misoprostol, a powdery substance known to induce labor and terminate early-stage pregnancies.

Woodward administered the drug three times, including vaginally while the couple was in bed, between September and October 2009.

Greaves said she will never understand why he did what he did, and she then watched her former lover get handcuffed and taken away.