Laura Owens was sentenced in Phoenix to 30 days in jail in the fabricated-pregnancy case involving Clayton Echard.

The jail figure is the part 12News and FOX 10 share: 30 days, and 12News said that term ends Nov. 22. The probation figure is not shared. 12News said several years of supervised probation and a deferred jail sentence. FOX 10 said seven years. KTAR is the plea: four counts on Aug. 28, with ten others the agreement says will be dismissed. Prison is what Echard asked for, KTAR reported, and what 12News said the judge did not impose. These accounts did not name the judge.

12News (KPNX) reported Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, that Laura Owens was sentenced in Phoenix to one month in jail. 12News reported several years of supervised probation, that the 30-day jail term ends Nov. 22, and that the judge also issued a 12-month deferred jail sentence that can be avoided if she follows the probation terms. 12News reported the judge chose not to impose prison time. FOX 10 Phoenix reported the sentence as 30 days in jail and seven years of probation, in the case involving fabricated pregnancy claims against two men, including Clayton Echard. 12News called the jail term one month and also a 30-day term. FOX 10 called it 30 days. The probation length is not the same number. Several years of supervised probation, and the deferred jail sentence, are what 12News reported. Seven years is what FOX 10 reported. Neither account named the judge.

KTAR News reported Laura Michelle Owens, a Scottsdale woman, pleaded guilty Aug. 28 to two counts of fraudulent schemes and artifices, one count of perjury, and one count of taking the identity of another. KTAR reported she was initially charged with 14 felonies, and that her plea agreement calls for the remaining 10 counts to be dismissed. KTAR reported the two fraudulent-schemes counts stem from conduct between May 2023 and June 2024 involving Echard, the Season 26 lead of ABC's "The Bachelor." Prosecutors alleged she altered an ultrasound image, faked a pregnancy video, and lied under oath during civil paternity proceedings, KTAR reported. KTAR reported a family court judge referred the matter for criminal investigation after Owens dropped her paternity claim and said she had miscarried. The perjury count and the identity-theft count involved a separate matter concerning Gregory Gillespie, a man Owens briefly dated in 2021, KTAR reported. KTAR reported the cases connected partly because both men shared the same family law attorney, Scottsdale lawyer Gregg Woodnick. The four counts are what she admitted. The other ten are what KTAR reported the agreement calls for dismissing. They are not counts she pleaded guilty to.

12News reported Owens filed a paternity suit in 2023. Echard told 12News in 2024 that they shared intimate moments but never had sexual intercourse. Echard told 12News the ultrasound video she gave him traced back to an older YouTube video of another woman's pregnancy. 12News reported a family court judge found she knowingly presented a false claim. 12News reported she was indicted on seven felony counts involving Echard, plus seven more in a separate case involving another man. KTAR is the outlet that named Gregory Gillespie on the perjury and identity-theft counts. 12News described the second case as another man and did not use that name. Seven and seven is the indictment split 12News reported. Fourteen felonies, and a plea to four of them, are KTAR's account of the charging paper and the agreement.

KTAR reported that before sentencing Owens apologized to her victims and said she wanted to take accountability. KTAR quoted Clayton Echard's victim impact statement: "Laura's been carrying out these tactics for at least ten years. She's not sorry. She's sorry she got caught," and, "I didn't get to choose my suffering. This image of fragility that she presents is calculated." KTAR reported Echard said Owens deserved prison. 12News reported the judge did not impose a prison term. What he told the court he thought she deserved, and what 12News reported the judge imposed, are different results. The 30-day jail term is the sentence 12News and FOX 10 both reported. The probation length remains the split between those two accounts. The judgment is on the counts in the plea. She can still ask a higher court to review it. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.