BROOKVILLE, Pennsylvania (LifeSiteNews) — A 23-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month for the gruesome murder of his pregnant girlfriend and unborn child, whom he said “ruined his life” and had repeatedly threatened to kill.
On July 18, Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas President Judge John H. Foradora sentenced Dakota Greeley to two life sentences without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend and unborn baby, per an ExploreJefferson.com report. In November 2023, after learning that his girlfriend, 25-year-old Trisha Renee Cole, was pregnant and threatening to kill the unborn baby, Greeley shot Cole in the head with a 30/30 rifle before proceeding to run over her body with his pickup truck.
Greeley had claimed that his girlfriend’s pregnancy had “ruined his life,” and according to one witness, the 23-year-old once expressed a desire to “kick and beat the child” out of Cole. On another occasion, about a month before the murders, after a doctor’s appointment, Greeley bluntly asked Cole, “Can we kill ‘it’ now?”
Greeley was arrested after attempting to flee on foot and opening fire on officers. He quickly confessed to his crimes, telling officers: “I f–ing shot her,” and when asked about the location of the murder weapon, replied “It was in my hand,” while laughing.
READ: Federal employee charged with capital murder for slipping abortion pills into girlfriend’s coffee
Greeley was initially charged with the first-degree murder of Cole, the third-degree murder of his unborn child, two counts of making terroristic threats, and abuse of a corpse, according to police records.
On July 1, he pled guilty to murder in the first degree of both his girlfriend and unborn child, in exchange for prosecutors dropping the other charges. The judge, however, showed Greeley no leniency when giving him two life sentences.
It’s worth noting that in Pennsylvania, abortion, the murder of an unborn child, is legal through 23 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy for any reason and up to birth for “medical” exceptions. Abortion, the violent destruction of an unborn child in his or her mother’s womb, is never medically necessary or justifiable.
“Trisha looked forward to the birth of her unborn baby and had begun searching for names for the dear little one that was yet to be,” Cole’s obituary tragically read.
READ: Man convicted of murdering Amish mother, unborn child receives two life sentences
In June, another Pennsylvania man, Shawn Cranston, was convicted of breaking into the home of and murdering a 23-year-old Amish woman named Rebekah Byler and her unborn child. Like Greeley, he was sentenced to two life sentences.
