Trial opens for man charged in death of Savanna Greywind

Prosecutors believe they can prove William Hoehn helped kill Savanna Greywind on Aug. 19, 2017.

The defense says Hoehn helped his former girlfriend cover up the crime after she cut Greywind's baby from her womb planning to claim the child as her own.

Both sides outlined their cases in opening statements to jurors in a Fargo courtroom on Wednesday. The case might turn on which version of a timeline of events the jury believes.

Hoehn faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the 22-year-old's August 2017 death. He has already pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and providing false information to investigators. His former girlfriend, Brooke Crews, pleaded guilty in December to the same three charges. She's serving a life sentence without parole.

There's no dispute about the basic facts of what happened in a north Fargo apartment on that August afternoon.

Brooke Crews asked Greywind, a downstairs neighber who was eight months pregnant, to come her apartment and help with a sewing project.

She then subdued Greywind and cut the baby from her womb. The Ramsey County medical examiner says Greywind died due to blood loss.

The question before the jury in this case is, Did Hoehn help his girlfriend kill Greywind, or did he just cover up the crime?

Cass County (North Dakota) prosecutor Ryan Younggren told jurors Hoehn returned home from work to find his girlfriend, Brooke Crews, cutting the baby from a semi-conscious Savanna Greywind.

"He says, 'Is she dead?'" said Younggren, who then told jurors Crews said, "I don't know, help me."

"He rolls up his sleeves, goes and gets a rope, puts it around her neck, pulls it tight. If she's not dead, she is now," Younggren said.

But defense attorney Daniel Borgen told jurors that's not how events unfolded.

"Will came home and found Brooke in the bathroom, blood all over the floor, a baby wrapped in a towel in the bathtub," Borgen said.

"When he walked into that bathroom door, and he saw the woman he loved next to a dead body, begging him for help, he helped her. He shouldn't have," Borgen told jurors in his opening statement. "We all know he should have immediately called the police. But he didn't. He made the wrong choice."

He said Hoehn is guilty of helping clean up the crime scene and dumping Greywind's body — wrapped in a sheet, garbage bags and duct tape — into the Red River where kayakers found it a few days later. Hoehn has already pleaded guilty to kidnapping and providing false information to police.

Borgen said Crews mislead Hoehn for months, telling him she was pregnant to keep him from leaving her.

Borgen told jurors the case is about a conspiracy, an agreement to commit murder. And Borgen said that did not happen. "William loved Brooke. They argued a lot. Things are going to end. She told him she was pregnant. William believed her. He wanted to believe her, he wanted this to be true," said Borgen.

The testimony of Crews could be critical. Prosecutors indicate Crews will testify Hoehn helped kill Greywind. Defense attorney Borgen told jurors Crews is not a credible witness and has changed her story many times.

But prosecutor Younggren says Crews and Hoehn desperately wanted a baby and were willing to kill to get what they wanted.

"Defendant William Hoehn is willing to break the law and really an oath to all of us to human beings that we won't kill each other. And that society functions the way it's supposed to. He was willing to conspire to meet an unspeakable act of murdering a pregnant woman and cutting out her baby," Younggren said.

Police searched the couple's apartment twice on Aug. 19, the day Greywind disappeared and again the next day, but found no sign of Greywind or a crime. When police returned on August 24th, they found the baby in the apartment.

The prosecution said Hoehn and Crews named the baby girl Phoenix and shopped for diapers at Walmart. The child was returned to her birth father and renamed Haisley Jo.

Attorneys say the trial could last nine days as each side tries to painstakingly convince the jury which timeline of events is true.