JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A quintuple shooting on Sunday that left three dead including an 11-month old may include another young victim. The mother of victim Xacia Burnem told First Coast News she has recently learned that her 18 year old daughter was pregnant.
As of Wednesday, no suspect has been formally charged in connection with the shootings but the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrested a person of interest on an unrelated charge after a stand-off situation.
A suspect in Burnem's death could also face a separate murder charge for the death of her unborn child.
In Florida, prosecutors can bring first degree murder, second degree murder, or manslaughter charges against one who kills an unborn child while causing injury to a pregnant mother.
Florida Statute: killing of an unborn child
First Coast News' crime analyst Mark Baughman said after a Florida law enacted in 2014, a fetus is treated as a living human being in physical crime situations.
"If the mother is killed and the child is killed resulting from the mother's murder, it's a double homicide," said Baughman. "There would have to be an autopsy performed, and a Medical Examiner would have to make the determination that she was carrying a viable fetus."
Unlike some other states only offering protection during later trimesters, Florida law defines a protected fetus as one "at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."
Regardless of whether the assailant or the woman has knowledge of the pregnancy, a murder or manslaughter charge could still be brought.
The Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida's State Attorney Office has prosecuted two Jacksonville cases involving fetus homicide in the past six years.
Andrew King received two life sentences for killing a pregnant mother and her unborn child in 2010.
In 2014, a jury found Virginia Wyche guilty of second degree murder and attempted murder when she shot a pregnant mother in the stomach. Wyche received 50 years for the unborn child's death. The mother survived the attack.
In Sunday's case, communications director for the State Attorney's office Jackelyn Barnard said due to the open investigation, no determination has been made on whether charges will be brought for the unborn child's death.
View the sentencing information for King and Wyche below:
Andrew King Sentence 10-24-13 by Jacob Rodriguez on Scribd
Virginia Wyche Sentence 9-22-15 by Jacob Rodriguez on Scribd