A 45-year-old Arkansas woman who lured a pregnant victim into an ambush and cut out her fetus in a botched scheme to “claim” the child as her own will face the death penalty after the state’s highest court denied her lawyers’ appeal that her upcoming state murder trial was barred by double jeopardy.
The Arkansas Supreme Court denied Amber Waterman’s appeal last week, ruling that her federal kidnapping convictions did not preclude the state from pursuing murder charges against her in the 2022 deaths of 33-year-old Ashley Bush and her unborn daughter, whom she had named Valkyrie Grace Willis.
Last year, Waterman pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping that resulted in death and one count of causing the death of an unborn child. She was then sentenced to two life sentences with no possibility of parole, as there is no parole in the federal prison system.
Arkansas is preparing to try Waterman on two counts of premeditated and deliberate capital murder.
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In an eight-page opinion, the justices reasoned that, while the federal kidnapping charges and the state murder charges against Waterman stem from the same act or acts, prosecution of the state charges does not constitute double jeopardy because they require “proof of a fact not required by the other offense” and the law defining each offense “is intended to prevent a substantially different harm or evil.”
From the order:
“The Arkansas capital-murder charges clearly require proof that Waterman had the premeditated and deliberated purpose to cause the death of another person, however, premeditated and deliberated purpose is not required by the federal statutes. Likewise, the federal convictions required proof of facts not required under the capital-murder statute in Arkansas. Specifically, kidnapping, which was required for both federal convictions, requires proof of an unlawful seizure, confinement, abduction, or holding of a person. Additionally, kidnapping requires that the person be willfully transported in interstate commerce. The Arkansas capital-murder statute requires no such unlawful holding or transport via interstate commerce. Because both the federal and state statutes require proof of facts not required by the other.”
As previously reported, Amber Waterman admitted to kidnapping Bush from Maysville and transporting her to Pineville, both in Arkansas, where Bush and Valkyrie died.
Waterman used the alias “Lucy” to contact Bush on Facebook while the victim was 31 weeks pregnant. She pretended to assist Bush in finding work by claiming to have an opening that the victim could fill. That interaction prompted the two women to meet in person for a “job interview” on October 28, 2022, at a public library in Gravette, Arkansas, where Amber Waterman offered Bush a work-from-home position for an Arkansas-based company.
“On Oct. 31, 2022, at roughly 11:45 a.m., Bush met Waterman at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville,” federal prosecutors wrote in a news release. “Under the pretext that Waterman was taking her to meet a supervisor to further discuss employment, Bush got into a truck driven by Waterman.”
Amber Waterman kidnapped Bush and drove her to her home in Pineville.
“At about 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2022, first responders reported to the Longview store in Pineville for an emergency call of a baby who was not breathing,” according to prosecutors. “Waterman admitted that she told first responders that she gave birth to the child in the truck on the way to the hospital.” But, in reality, she admitted, the child was Bush’s child, who died in utero as a result of Waterman’s kidnapping, which led to Bush’s death.
A subsequent autopsy determined that Bush’s death was a homicide with “penetrating trauma of the torso.” Authorities say Amber Waterman shot and killed Bush before attempting to remove the unborn child from her uterus with a knife. She also tried to burn Bush’s body.
Joshua Robinson, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County, Arkansas, stated in July that he will prosecute Waterman in state court and seek the death penalty.
Waterman’s attorneys filed two motions with the court in the state case on Monday, according to NBC affiliate KNWA in Benton, Ark. The first was a request for a mental evaluation to determine her mental fitness for trial, and the second was a motion to prevent prosecutors from referring to the federal case or any statements Waterman made during federal proceedings.
Waterman’s pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 7.