MARIETTA, Ga. — Early on a Saturday morning in August last year, a man forced his way into a home and stabbed a pregnant woman and her son, injuring the 19-year-old son and killing the woman and her unborn child.
Police later learned the man was the husband of the woman, and the unborn child was his.
Elvin Durant was sentenced Friday to two life sentences, to be served concurrently, for felony murder and feticide-murder in those deaths.
He earlier pleaded guilty before family members of his wife, Crystal Battle, gave emotional victim impact statements.
A court learned he said "this is the end" just before he stabbed his wife to death, in a house where five of her other children were sleeping, and told officers, "God has used me as a death angel to protect the rights of unborn children."
His lawyer outlined numerous mental health issues he'd been diagnosed with, but acknowledged they did not amount to a mental health defense.
Durant apologized before his sentencing.
Police said at the time of the attack last year that Durant had forced his way into the home, on Wood Meadows Drive in Marietta, at 2:30 in the morning. He stabbed his wife in the back of her neck and head with a black folding knife. Then also stabbed her teenage son Jakeem Battle, who was trying to intervene, in the right thigh.
Crystal Battle was eight weeks pregnant at the time.
Police arrived and arrested Durant, thanks to a security system in the home going off.
MORE HEADLINES
