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Left: Kayla Netherland (Facebook). Right: Jeremy McBride (Marion County Jail).
An Indiana man has been sentenced to decades behind bars after shooting his pregnant estranged wife, an incident that gravely injured her and resulted in the tragic loss of their unborn child.
Jeremy McBride, aged 37, received a 30-year prison sentence on Tuesday following his guilty plea to charges of attempted murder and feticide. McBride was handed a 30-year term for the attempted murder and an additional nine years for the feticide related to the attack on Kayla Netherland. These sentences will run concurrently. He was also credited for the 395 days already served, along with an extra 131 days, according to the sentencing document.
As previously detailed by Law&Crime, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a shooting incident at approximately 6 p.m. on January 19, 2025, in the 700 block of East Pleasant Run Parkway. Upon arrival, officers discovered 25-year-old Netherland in the bathroom, suffering from gunshot wounds. She was rushed to the hospital where doctors managed to stabilize her, but unfortunately, they could not save the unborn child.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime reveals that at the time of the shooting, a friend of Netherland’s had arrived at the home to do laundry and found McBride standing over her. McBride reportedly left the house without speaking, and the friend informed police that she suspected him of shooting Netherland. Authorities tracked McBride using license plate readers and detained him.
Upon his arrest, McBride exited his vehicle, which then rolled into a pole as it wasn’t in park. He informed the arresting officer that he intended to surrender at the police station and indicated the gun used was in the car. He also inquired about Netherland’s condition, asking, “Is she ok?” Inside the vehicle, police discovered the firearm alongside handwritten notes addressed to his estranged wife about their relationship.
“McBride wrote to [Netherland] of his frustrations with her infidelity, his frustrations with their failed relationship, his anger & insecurities which led him to mistreat others, his belief that he has not ‘molded’ himself into an individual [she] would want to have children with, and that he had wanted children with her,” detectives wrote.
After receiving his Miranda warnings, the defendant told detectives he was upset that while they hadn’t gotten divorced, “she had gotten pregnant” by another man, according to the affidavit. The marriage hadn’t been going well, and they had separated in September 2024, but he hoped they could get back together.
“Maybe she will come back one day, but not for me. But in many ways, I killed her,” McBride allegedly wrote.
He bought a gun and ammunition a few days before the shooting with the intent of killing her, the baby, and himself. McBride said he and Netherland had been hanging out on the day of the shooting, shopping at Goodwill before returning to her house. They were talking, with her in the bathroom and him sitting on the bed, the affidavit said. He reportedly said shooting her “made sense in that moment,” so he fired five shots into her back. She never saw him shoot, he said.
“Certainly what is alleged is this person went to great lengths to carry out what he intended to do,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears told local Fox affiliate WXIN.
Cops say Netherland underwent at least two surgeries: one to remove her unborn baby and the other to address her internal injuries.