A 22-year-old man whose brutal beating of a pregnant woman caused her baby to die nine days after being born killed a human being, not an unborn child, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

The three-judge panel rejected Paul A. Petersen's argument that he "did not intend to kill a human being; rather, he intended to kill an unborn child." It also affirmed his 40-year prison sentence.

Petersen had pleaded guilty in 2008 to intentional second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

The baby's father, Dameon Gatson, was convicted of first- and second-degree murder and first-degree assault in 2009. The Hennepin County jury found that he had hired his friend Petersen to attack Shyloe Linde, who was 19 and six months pregnant.

A day after the beating Linde gave birth to a girl she named Destiny Gatson, but she removed the child from life support after doctors determined that she would suffer from devastating medical problems.

Under Minnesota law, a person is guilty of second-degree murder if that person "causes the death of a human being with intent to effect the death of that person or another, but without premeditation." Another law passed in 1986 says that a person can be found guilty of second-degree murder of an unborn child if the person "causes the death of an unborn child with intent to effect the death of that unborn child or another, but without premeditation." The appeals court pointed out that the Legislature did not mean to consider one crime more serious than another. The punishment for either is up to 40 years in prison.

Petersen's "intent was to cause injuries to [Destiny Gatson] that would result in her death in utero, but the injuries instead resulted in [Destiny Gatson's] death only after she was born alive," the appeals court decision said. "This variation is too slight for the law to shrink from imposing criminal liability for the intentional killing of a human being."

In other parts of the country, courts have also ruled that the focus of the law is on the resulting death, rather than the "state of the victim," the appeals court said.

Petersen's sentence was also justified because the "victim was a six-month-old fetus that had no way to defend herself," the decision said.

Lora Pabst • 612-916-7212