Photo by Eric Purcell

Sosefina Amoa—the 26-year-old nun-in-training who was arrested last October for killing her infant son—was charged with voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison today, U.S. Attorney Ron Machen announced.

Amoa, who is originally from Samoa, was living and receiving religious training at Little Sisters of the Poor in Northeast D.C. when she gave birth to a baby boy on the morning of October 11, 2013. She told police that she didn’t know she was pregnant and accidentally suffocated the infant while trying to keep him quiet so other nuns at the convent wouldn’t hear him.

According to police, Amoa “cleaned the room in what authorities determined was an attempt to hide the birth of the child.” She later called in one of the Sisters and showed her the baby. Authorities also say Amoa “gave conflicting accounts” to police and the Sisters at her convent. She told police on October 16 that, when she gave birth to the child, he fell to the floor and she got on the floor next to the baby, afraid that someone would hear his crying, and placed a wool garment over his nose and mouth “and applied pressure with her hand for two to three minutes.”

A medical examiner later determined that the baby’s cause of death was asphyxiation.

Amoa pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in February and was sentenced today. After she serves her term, she’ll be placed on five years of supervised released and will be subject to deportation proceedings.