Updated

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. Her lawyer said she was shocked and panicked when she put a wool garment over the baby's nose and mouth, smothering the boy.

Amoa had arrived in the United States from Samoa less than a week before delivering the baby at the Little Sisters of the Poor convent in northwest Washington. She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.