Virginia Man Gets Five Years in Prison for Causing Girlfriend’s Abortion
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 16, 2007
Hampton, VA (LifeNews.com) — A Virginia man has been sentenced to five years in prison trying to cause his girlfriend to have an abortion. Daniel Riase, 21, was charged with trying to poison his girlfriend and administering a drug with the intention of causing an abortion or miscarriage.
Riase was arrested on February 25 when spiked his girlfriend’s drink and caused the abortion.
Hampton Police Cpl. Allison Good indicated that Riase allegedly crushed two misoprostol pills, used in the abortion drug RU 486, and put them in the drink of his 19-year-old partner I-Sharii Best. He purchased the drugs online.
After consuming the drink, Best began to bleed and drove herself to Sentara Careplex Hospital in Hampton. There, medical officials confirmed she had a miscarriage about 11 weeks into the pregnancy.
Best had considered an abortion and made and later canceled her appointment before Riase spiked the drink.
She thought she had had a miscarriage naturally but later found an email on Riase’s computer with a receipt for the purchase.
Best previously said Riase wasn’t happy when she told him in January that she was pregnant with his child. He had talked frequently about not wanting to be a father, she said, and had pressured her to have an abortion but she refused.
The dispute over the abortion led to a fight where Riase hit Best and it led to assault charges, but she later dropped them when he pretended to be interested in the baby and appeared supportive of her health and well-being.
"I’m angry, and I’m upset, and I’m still a little shocked that it went this far," Best said at the time. "He was acting like he was being supportive, but he was just putting on a front all along because he had already ordered the pills."
Best, who attends Old Dominion University, said she was "excited" about the pregnancy.
Riase pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated malicious wounding leading to the involuntary termination of a woman’s pregnancy and one count of adulterating a drink.
According to the Daily Press newspaper, Hampton Circuit Court Judge William C. Andrews III sentenced Riase to 35 years in prison. Riase will serve five of the years and the other 30 are suspended.
Riase must be on good behavior for 20 years or face additional prison time, he must have a DNA sample given to the state for its criminal records and he is on supervised probation indefinitely.
"I was surprised that he could be sentenced to life in prison," Best told the Daily Press before the sentencing hearing. "But I hope they do lock him up for a while because he needs to know what he did was wrong."
Officials charged him after Best taped a phone conversation in which he admitted to buying the pills and putting them in her drink.
