MISHAWAKA, Ind. — A teenager in Indiana was sentenced to 65 years in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to killing his pregnant girlfriend because she waited past the legal abortion limit to tell him that she was with child.
“You took her life in one of the most savage and violent manners I have seen in my career,” Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hurley said in issuing the sentence, according to the South Bend Tribune.
She noted that the teen “had so many other options” besides committing murder in being frustrated about the pregnancy.
As previously reported, Aaron Trejo, now 17, was arrested in December 2018 in the death of Breana Rouhselang, 17, who was a former cheerleader, softball player and manager for the Mishawaka High School football team — of which Trejo was a member. Rouhselang was six months pregnant with their baby.
According to reports, Rouhselang’s family called police at 4:30 a.m. after she did not return home from meeting with Trejo. Her body was later found in a dumpster behind Rulli’s Restaurant in Mishawaka.
Fox 59 News reports that Trejo admitted to police that he killed Rouhselang, stating that she had waited too long to tell him about the pregnancy to get an abortion, and so he “took action.” Abortion is legal up to 22 weeks in Indiana, and Rouhselang was at least 24 weeks pregnant.
“I took her life,” he said.
Trejo initially denied seeing Rouhselang during that time period, but evidence in the alley behind the teen’s house, including a blood-soiled stocking cap, pointed to the commission of a violent crime. The St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit brought Trujo in for questioning, and he denied seeing the girl a second time before eventually confessing to the murder.
“[H]e had been planning and thinking about killing Breana and the baby for about a week and had not told anybody,” a police affidavit states.
According to reports, the two had a fight over the baby, during which Trejo choked Rouhselang and stabbed her in the heart. He then pulled a garbage bag over her head and threw her body in the dumpster. Trejo also disposed of Rouhselang’s phone and the knife used in the crime in the river.
As part of a plea agreement, Trejo pleaded guilty in October to murder and “feticide.” Rouhselang’s mother, Melissa Wallace, urged Judge Hurley during the sentencing hearing to sentence him to life in prison, and her father likewise asked for a strict sentence.
“There is no excuse for what I’ve done,” Trejo told those gathered, according to the South Bend Tribune. “Saying I’m sorry wouldn’t be enough, but it’s all I can give.”
Hurley sentenced Trejo to 55 years behind bars for murdering Rouhselang, and 10 years for killing his unborn child.
According to an obituary posted online, Rouhselang “was looking forward to receiving her letter at the Mishawaka High School sports banquet on the afternoon of her death [and] had huge aspirations of attending college upon graduation to study athletic training.” She also “loved going to church with her grandma whenever she could.”
As previously reported, in Mark 7:20-23 Jesus outlined that murder, like all sin, begins in the heart. It is why He declared that men must be born again (John 3:3) and have their very nature changed, or they cannot see the Kingdom of God.
“That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man,” Jesus said. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
The Bible states that one can be guilty in God’s eyes of committing murder in their heart before ever committing the physical act of violence against their neighbor.
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