KITTANNING, Pa.—A judge has nearly halved the state prison sentence for a western Pennsylvania woman who tried to steal a fetus by knocking her pregnant neighbor unconscious with a baseball bat and cutting her abdomen in 2005.

Armstrong County President Judge Kenneth Valasek on Wednesday reduces 45-year-old Peggy Jo Conner's sentence to 12 1/2 to 31 years in prison. The Manor Township woman had been serving 22 to 50 years in prison.

Valasek reduced the sentence after agreeing with a defense attorney that Conner was wrongly sentenced under a section of the attempted homicide statute that includes "serious bodily injury." Valasek agreed that was incorrect and resulted in a more severe sentence than necessary.

Conner pleaded guilty in 2007 to the attack against 31-year-old Valerie Oskin on Oct. 13, 2005. Oskin and her unborn baby survived.