Phoenix, Arizona: Laura Owens Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail in Bachelor Pregnancy Fraud Case

A Maricopa County judge sentenced Laura Owens to 30 days in jail and seven years of supervised probation on Friday morning, October 23, closing a criminal case that grew out of her false claim that former Bachelor star Clayton Echard had fathered her twins. Judge Jeffrey Rueter ordered Owens placed in the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, The Arizona Republic reported.

Owens pleaded guilty on August 28 to two counts of fraudulent schemes, one count of perjury and one count of taking the identity of another. Prosecutors dismissed the remaining 10 counts. The plea deal did not guarantee that she would avoid prison. She faced three to 12 years, with a presumptive term of five years. Prosecutors had recommended one year in jail, then 10 years of supervised probation and 400 hours of community service.

How the case began

Owens filed a paternity lawsuit against Echard in August 2023 after an encounter at his Scottsdale home. Echard said the two never had sexual intercourse. In 2024, Superior Court Judge Julie Mata found that Owens had falsified sonograms, altered medical records and lied under oath during the civil case. Mata ordered her to pay Echard's legal fees and referred the matter to prosecutors, who first charged her in May 2025.

The case later grew to include claims against Gregory Gillespie, a Scottsdale man Owens dated in 2021. Prosecutor Nicole Northup told the court Owens told Gillespie she was pregnant with twins 11 days after intercourse using a condom, then sent him an ultrasound picture he found on the internet. Prosecutors said she also doctored an email to impersonate a medical professional and used the identities and ultrasound images of other women to support her claims.

What prosecutors told the judge

Northup called Owens a master manipulator. "The psychological warfare that she waged on these men was extreme," Northup said. Prosecutor Edward Leiter said Owens looked into HCG injections, which can produce false positive pregnancy tests, and used an ultrasound from her sister Sarah, altered to show twins, to convince Echard she was pregnant with his children.

Victims and family address the court

Echard told Rueter that a plea deal was not the same as accepting responsibility. "She's not sorry, she's sorry she got caught," he said, arguing that Owens had used the same tactics for at least 10 years. Owens told the court she was "profoundly, profoundly sorry for the pain, the stress and expense that I've caused them." Her parents, Ronn and Jan Owens, asked for leniency. Jan Owens said Ronn is 81, has lived with Parkinson's disease for 26 years and has survived three kinds of cancer, and that Owens helps care for him.

The judge's reasoning

Rueter said the case left him at a loss. "Nothing makes sense about this," he said. He said Owens was either a sophisticated shakedown artist or a sad individual making poor choices, and he concluded it was the latter. He sentenced her to 30 days in jail and seven years of supervised probation. If she violates probation, she could serve up to 12 and a half years in prison.