Murder trial halted after court shown photos of mutilated victim so graphic juror passes out

Horrific image showed remains of Angelikque Sutton, butchered by friend who cut baby from womb

Angelikque Sutton was nine months pregnant when she was killed (Facebook)

A juror passed out after seeing graphic photographs of a murder victim during the trial of a woman accused of killing her pregnant friend and cutting her baby from the womb.

A judge was forced to halt the Bronx Supreme Court trial after prosecutors presented a gruesome image of Angelikque Sutton’s mutilated body as evidence.

Ashleigh Wade is alleged to have butchered the 22-year-old on her wedding day after slashing the expectant mother's voice box so she could not scream for help and cutting major blood vessels so she was unable to move.

She then cut open Ms Sutton's abdomen, removed her uterus and extracted the infant, who miraculously survived.

The court was shown a graphic autopsy picture of the victim's detached uterus and umbilical cord on a large TV just feet from the jury box as forensic pathologist Declan McGuone gave evidence, the New York Daily News reported.

Justice Margaret Clancy cleared the courtroom after noticing one juror, a middle-aged woman, was slumped unconscious in her seat.

"It appears the juror fainted," the judge announced after a 45-minute break, during which an ambulance took the woman to a hospital for a check-up.

She said the juror was now conscious but adjourned the trial until the next day.

"That must have shook you guys up, like it did everyone, when the juror was unresponsive," Ms Clancy told the remaining members of the jury.

The judge had taken the rare step of allowing jurors to opt out before the trial began due to the gruesome nature of the case.

Jonathan Polanco Ortiz, the first police officer to arrive at the scene of the killing, has told the trial what he saw “left a mark on his soul".

Jurors have also seen pictures of the blood-drenched bathroom floor of Ms Wade's apartment in The Bronx, New York, where Ms Sutton's mutilated remains were found.

Ashleigh Wade (New York Department of Corrections) (NY Department of Corrections)

Ms Sutton was on her way to get married in November 2015 when she stopped off to see her friend, who told her she wanted to give her a gift.

She died of multiple stab wounds to her neck.

Prosecutors allege Ms Wade, 23, coldly and carefully planned to kill her friend, who was nine-months pregnant, and steal her baby.

They said Ms Wade faked pregnancy for months before murdering Ms Sutton and tried to pass the child off as her own before she was arrested. She had stockpiled baby clothes and nappies before the killing.

Ms Wade later told officers she had "rescued" the baby girl, who is now 22 months old.

Defence lawyer Amy Attias denied that Ms Wade, who faces life without the possibility of parole if convicted, had “intentionally” killed Sutton.

“Something could have gone horribly and terribly and tragically wrong within Ms. Wade’s own mind," she told the court.