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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA 17-year-old northern Indiana boy has been sentenced to 65 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of a schoolmate who was pregnant with his child.
St. Joseph Superior Judge Elizabeth Hurley sentenced Aaron Trejo on Tuesday to 55 years for murder and 10 years for feticide after weighing several factors, including the violent nature of the crime. Those sentences will run consecutively, with no time suspended.
Trejo, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty in October to murder and feticide in Breana Rouhselang’s 2018 killing. Prosecutors said Trejo told officers he killed Rouhselang because he was angry she waited so long to tell him she was pregnant that it was too late to get an abortion.
“You took her life in one of the most savage and violent manners I have seen in my career,” Hurley told Trejo before announcing his sentence.
Trejo and Rouhselang were Mishawaka High School classmates in December 2018 when authorities said they argued over her pregnancy. Her body was discovered in a dumpster behind a restaurant near her home. A trash bag had been placed over her head and upper torso, according to court documents.
Her body was found in a dumpster in their hometown of Mishawaka, about 80 miles east of Chicago.
Rouhselang’s mother, Melissa Wallace, had asked the judge to sentence her daughter’s killer to life in prison.
“I’m glad we got justice for Bre,” she said after Tuesday’s hearing. “But no amount of time will ever replace what he took from me.”
Trejo was a Mishawaka High School football player and Rouhselang was a team manager. Relatives say she was six months pregnant.
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