INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A 20-year-old Kansas City-area woman was sentenced Tuesday to 23 years in prison for snatching a pregnant teenager she met online in a foiled plot to steal her unborn child.

Lauren Gash, of Odessa, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, assaulting and restraining 18-year-old Amanda Howard, now Amanda Culley, of Clinton, inside a Blue Springs motel room a year ago.

Co-defendant Alisa Betts of Atchison, Kan., remains charged with kidnapping, assault and felonious restraint.

According to police, Gash and Betts lured the unemployed and single Howard from her home by telling her they would drive her to get clothes for her baby. Along the way, Howard realized something was wrong and tried to use her cell phone but was assaulted with a type of pepper spray, police said.

According to police, Gash bound and gagged Howard after they arrived at the Interstate Inn in Blue Springs. Howard later told police she thought Gash was trying to kill her.

Prosecutors said a scared Betts left the motel room and called police.

Officers arrived at the motel, thinking that they were checking on a distressed pregnant woman. They became suspicious when they saw the duct tape around Howard's neck and in her hair. Howard told the officers she had been held against her will.

In court Tuesday, Gash said she did not plan to cut the baby from Howard's wound. Instead, she said, she was going to keep Howard in the motel until she gave birth, then take Howard's baby and raise him as her own.

Prosecutors claimed Gash had tools to cut the baby from Howard's wound and that Howard would have died if Gash hadn't been stopped.

Two days after the attack, Howard gave birth to a healthy son.

Howard is taking care of her 11-month-old son in her hometown of Clinton. She's newly married and is pregnant with her second child, a girl.

In court Tuesday, Gash apologized to Howard and said she hoped Howard could forgive her.

"I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything I put you through," Gash said. "I wish I could take it all back."

Howard said she didn't think Gash should be released from prison anytime soon.

"Once she is allowed out, I think she should get counseling," Howard said.