Woman accused of fatally stabbing pregnant friend, ripping child from womb insists it was self-defense (Photos)

A baby-obsessed Bronx woman who stabbed an expectant mom to death claimed she killed her former pal in self-defense and cut the baby from her belly to save the newborn’s life.

The accused killer’s defense emerged on Saturday, along with bizarre details of her fascination with babies – and grisly details of the savage murder.

Ashleigh Wade, 22, was sitting on the stoop of her building, her hands dripping with blood after the knife attack. She told cops she stabbed Angelikque Sutton “as many times as she could,” a police source said.

(Ashleigh Wade)

Inside Wade’s apartment and surrounded by a sea of red, Sutton was barely alive, police said. She had been stabbed repeatedly in her neck and body and had a deep gash across her stomach, police said.

The baby’s placenta was found on the bathroom floor, officials said. And the bloody knife used in the killing was found nearby. Both mother and baby were rushed to Montefiore Medical Center, where Sutton, 22, died a little after 3:30 p.m.

After initially claiming she had just given birth to the baby herself, Wade later changed her twisted tune and said it was her pregnant victim who attacked her inside her home on Monticello Ave. in Wakefield.

(Victim; Angelikque Sutton )

Wade claimed Sutton lunged at her with a knife, but she wrestled it away and jammed it into the pregnant woman’s neck. She then cut open Sutton’s stomach to save the unborn child, she told cops.

“She said she wanted to save the baby,” a police source with knowledge of the case said Saturday.

Wade, who remained at Jacobi Medical Center Saturday undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, was arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. She had never been arrested before, police said.

-Nydailynews