Main: Amber Waterman (Benton County Detention Center). Inset: Ashley Bush (Benton County Sheriff's Office).
A 45-year-old woman in Arkansas will spend the rest of her life behind bars for luring a pregnant victim into a fatal ambush and cutting out her fetus in a botched scheme to "claim" the child as her own.
Amber Dawn Waterman on Wednesday formally pleaded guilty to two counts of premeditated and deliberate capital murder for the 2022 slayings of 33-year-old Ashley Bush and her unborn child, Valkyrie Grace Willis.
Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren subsequently ordered Waterman to serve two sentences of life in a state correctional facility without the chance for parole. The sentences will be served consecutive to each other and consecutive to her federal sentences for kidnapping resulting in death and causing the death of a child in utero, which she pleaded guilty to in July 2024.
Waterman's plea allowed her to avoid the death penalty, which state prosecutors in Arkansas had been adamant about pursuing in her case.
The Arkansas Supreme Court had already ruled that the state case against Waterman was not barred by double jeopardy.
"This case represents one of the most tragic and heinous crimes our detectives have ever encountered," the Benton County Sheriff's Office said in a news release after the sentencing. "It deeply impacted our community and will remain with us forever."
During the plea and sentencing hearing, Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Josh Robinson read a series of victim impact statements from Bush's family and friends, local NBC affiliate KNWA reported.
"More than anything in this world, Ashley wanted to be a mother," Bush's aunt reportedly wrote in one of the statements. "Trauma layered with shock and horror. A plea deal must not be interpreted as mercy or forgiveness."
As part of the plea deal, Waterman is reportedly required to provide prosecutors with additional information about the crime to help give the family closure.
As previously reported, Amber Waterman admitted to kidnapping Bush from Maysville and transporting her to Pineville, both of which are in Arkansas. That kidnapping directly resulted in the deaths of Bush and Valkyrie.
Waterman used a false name — "Lucy" — to contact Bush via Facebook while the victim was 31 weeks pregnant. She pretended to help Bush get a job by telling her she had an opportunity the victim could fill. That interaction prompted an in-person "job interview" between the two women on Oct. 28, 2022, at a public library in Gravette, Arkansas, where Amber Waterman offered Bush a work-from-home position for a company based out of Arkansas.
"On Oct. 31, 2022, at roughly 11:45 a.m., Bush met Waterman at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville," federal prosecutors wrote in a news release. "Under the pretext that Waterman was taking her to meet a supervisor to further discuss employment, Bush got into a truck driven by Waterman."
Amber Waterman then kidnapped Bush and drove the pregnant woman to the Waterman residence in Pineville.
"At about 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2022, first responders reported to the Longview store in Pineville for an emergency call of a baby who was not breathing," prosecutors wrote. "Waterman admitted that she claimed to first responders that she had given birth to the child in the truck while on the way to the hospital. But in reality, she admitted, the child was Bush's child, who died in utero, as a result of Waterman's kidnapping that resulted in the death of Bush."
A subsequent autopsy determined that Bush's manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was "penetrating trauma of the torso." Authorities say that Amber Waterman shot and killed Bush, then used a knife to try to remove the unborn child from her uterus. She also attempted to burn Bush's body.
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