A Samoan woman studying to become a nun is on suicide watch in a jail cell in Washington DC after being charged with the murder of a newborn baby.
26 year old Sosefina Amoa was charged last Friday with first-degree felony murder and cruelty to children.
Amoa had arrived in Washington from Samoa just a few days earlier.
She was studying to become a nun with the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The Washington Post reports Amoa hid her pregnancy from the nuns.
It reports she gave birth to her son on October the 10th and then, fearing that the baby would start crying and alert the nuns, allegedly smothered it.
The paper says Amoa told detectives she became afraid that the nuns would hear the baby and find out that she had lied to them about her past sexual activity.
The judge has ordered she be under suicide watch in jail.
