Girl in Trouble

Owen had withdrawn from K-State and was living at home in Olathe when she found out that she and Huston were going to have a baby.

Rebecca was mad at first. She told Owen that she had just blown her legal case.

But Owen was thrilled. "She said, 'I guess I'm supposed to be a mom, Mom,'" Rebecca says.

Eventually, Rebecca decided to make the best of the situation. "I said, 'OK, for once in your life, you're going to experience a healthy pregnancy and all the joy that you missed by not telling anybody.' The fun little stuff of it that she never got to enjoy. And we did. The first time we went to look for baby clothes, it was so much fun. We went to Burlington Coat Factory here at the Great Mall. You see the strollers and you see the cribs and you see all this stuff, the little booties. And I never knew that Aubrey was ever into feet at all, but baby feet? Oh, if it's a booty or a little shoe, she would just squeal and go, 'Oh, my God, this is so cute!'"

Owen also told her counselors about the new pregnancy. She said she felt blessed. Michele Paynter, a clinical coordinator at the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault, whom Owen began seeing about a year after her arrest, wrote in court documents: "The client beamed with excitement. Her specialist expressed concerns upon her rape case, and how potential jurors would view this recent development. The client was overwhelmingly happy, and didn't seem concerned about the matter."

But it killed the case. If they'd gone to trial, Cornwell notes, Owen would have walked into court each day nearly nine months pregnant. The county returned with a new offer — this time five years instead of four — if Owen pleaded no contest.

Owen was seven months pregnant when she agreed to the plea on August 18, 2005. Her sentencing hearing was delayed so that she could give birth and have a few weeks to bond with her daughter. Alexis was born on October 3.

At Owens' November 17 sentencing, family members and friends pleaded for District Judge Thomas Bornholdt to show mercy. As a condition to speak, everyone who stood on Owen's behalf, including her mother and father, had to concede that Owen deserved to go away, Cornwell tells the Pitch.

So each of Owen's supporters hesitantly agreed that she deserved the terms of the plea agreement: five years in prison for unintentional second-degree murder.

Bornholdt handed down the full five years.

In the visiting room at the Topeka Correctional Facility, a couple of dozen small tables are surrounded by blue plastic chairs. Relatives line up at the vending machines to buy their incarcerated family members Cokes and sandwiches. Others huddle around their tables playing cards and talking quietly. Kids run around the room laughing.

Owen is allowed to see Huston and their daughter, Alexis, on Saturdays and Sundays for six-hour visits. On the weekend before Mother's Day, Owen wears jeans and a white sweatshirt. Her eyes light up as her mother hobbles into the room; Rebecca sprained her ankle in a fall earlier in the week.

The two share a long embrace, then Rebecca notices the half-inch cut on her daughter's left eyebrow. Aubrey tells her mother she's fine, that the cut came from a mishap with Buddy, a German Shepard she's been assigned to give obedience training in the yard, readying him for a dog shelter. Buddy got too excited and accidentally bit her as they wrestled the previous Monday, Aubrey says, downplaying the wound. She's more concerned about her mother's ankle.

When Aubrey sees Huston walk in with Alexis in a carrier, she jumps up to greet her baby. Alexis seems to recognize her mother right away.

"Good morning, sunshine," Aubrey says. She picks up her baby and swings her in the air, smiling wide. She gives Alexis a dozen kisses, swinging her up again and again, saying a loud, shrill "Hi!"

She hugs Huston, then returns her attention to her little girl. She holds Alexis in her lap, and Alexis, in what has become a habit, tugs at the inmate tag on Aubrey's shirt and then starts chewing on it.

Huston tells Aubrey about how Alexis chewed on a barbecued rib, how she loves to sing during American Idol. Aubrey feeds Alexis a bottle, then yogurt from a spoon, then sings the alphabet to her daughter.

Huston, who has custody of Alexis, says they'll be waiting for Owen when she gets out. He hasn't proposed to her, but their plan, he says, is to marry when Owen is released.

"I understand the mistakes I made," Owen tells the Pitch. "It's nobody's fault but mine." But she says she wants other women caught in similar circumstances to know her story so that they can seek help.

Though they admit they missed obvious signs that their daughter was troubled, her parents remain adamant that she belongs in counseling, not prison. They, too, visit her every Saturday.

For his part, Cornwell calls it one of the strangest cases he's ever defended.

"I have always been troubled and I have never had this answered to my satisfaction, why she didn't tell mom and dad, why she didn't tell her best friend. She's just a lost soul. It's just so goddamned sad."