Woman Who Killed Baby at D.C. Convent Gets 4 Years

A Samoan woman who acknowledged killing her newborn son at a DC convent where she was studying to become a nun has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Sosefina Amoa was sentenced Friday in D.C. Superior Court in Washington.

Amoa pleaded guilty in February to killing her infant, but her lawyer said she was shocked and panicked when she smothered the child by putting a wool garment over the baby's nose and mouth.

According to police documents, Amoa began having contractions and gave birth in her room at the Little Sisters of the Poor convent in northwest Washington on Oct. 10, 2013. She said the baby fell to the floor after she gave birth to him, and later told officers that she got scared that the nuns would hear the newborn crying, so she covered his face, the documents say.

The following morning, Amoa found a nun and told her she'd found the baby outside before later admitting the baby was hers. They took the baby to Providence Hospital in a black luggage bag.

While Amoa told police conflicting information at first, she eventually told them she had known she was pregnant. Amoa also admitted that she hadn't told the nuns at Little Sisters she had been sexually active.

Amoa had arrived in the United States from Samoa less than a week before delivering the boy. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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