MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled a man who brutally beat a pregnant woman, causing her baby to die just days after birth, killed a human being, not an unborn child.

The appeals court Tuesday rejected Paul Petersen’s argument that he did not intend to kill a human being, but rather an unborn child. Petersen pleaded guilty in 2008 to intentional second-degree murder and first-degree assault. The court upheld his 40-year prison sentence.

The baby’s father, Dameon Gatson, was convicted of hiring Petersen to attack Shyloe Linde, who was six months pregnant. She gave birth a day after she was beaten. The baby was later removed from life support.