Donald Wooten (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office).
A Georgia resident has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term following a harrowing incident where he shot his pregnant girlfriend in the head, allegedly to terminate their unborn child. The victim later emerged from a coma with no recollection of the event and underwent an emergency C-section to deliver the baby safely.
According to an arrest affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Donald Wooten, 27, confessed to authorities that he intended to prevent the birth of the child. Last week, he received a 60-year prison sentence after being found guilty of attempted murder, criminal attempt to commit feticide, and using a firearm in the execution of a felony.
The affidavit detailed that Wooten’s actions were driven by a desire to end the unborn child’s life by shooting his girlfriend in the head. Due to this violent act, an emergency C-section was necessary to save the baby.
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office reported last Thursday that a jury convicted Wooten for the March 2023 shooting after evidence revealed he assaulted his girlfriend near a walking trail in Decatur’s Chapel Hill Park.
The DA’s office described how the DeKalb County Police Department responded to a 911 call around 7 a.m., which reported an unresponsive woman near the trail. Emergency medical technicians found a pregnant woman in the fetal position, conscious but unable to communicate, with a gunshot wound to her head.
The victim was transported to a local hospital and medical staffers determined she suffered a gunshot wound to her head and that she was 22 weeks pregnant. Initially, detectives couldn’t speak with the victim due to her incoherent state, but the victim’s family told investigators they suspected Wooten was behind the shooting.
Police interviewed Wooten and he “informed detectives that he initially did not want the victim to have the child and he was upset that the victim chose to go through with the pregnancy,” per the affidavit. Wooten provided detectives with an alibi, claiming he was with a person who later denied knowing him.
“When they spoke with him over the phone, he told officers he’d gone to a movie with the victim the night before she was found, then back to the apartment complex where they both lived,” the DA’s office explained. “After parting ways, he said he went to his secondary apartment in Atlanta.”
Prosecutors said a receipt found in the victim’s car and text messages corroborated the trip to the movies, but location records from Wooten’s cellphone and the victim’s phone did not match the story of traveling to Ellenwood.
“Two months after she was shot, police were able to interview the victim at the hospital,” the DA’s office said. “She recalled being at the park with the defendant late at night but did not remember being shot. The defendant was questioned again by police and reiterated the second version of his story. He was arrested without incident.”
In jail calls, Wooten allegedly asked a relative to wipe his cellphone remotely after police collected it as evidence. Police managed to extract data from it before the phone was wiped.
“Messages between defendant Wooten and the victim revealed they were arguing over the pregnancy and their future together,” the DA’s office recounted. “In the days following the shooting, he sent messages asking someone to retrieve a gun and bullets from his apartment, and reminding someone to tell police they’d been together the night of the incident.”
During Wooten’s trial, the victim testified that she recalled driving herself and Wooten to the movie, then back to their apartment complex. She said that Wooten suggested they go to Chapel Hill Park.
“The victim’s last memory is walking in the park with the defendant,” the DA’s office said.
Wooten was found guilty on April 20.