Teen Caught With Dead Newborn In Victoria's Secret Receives 16-Year Prison Sentence

A New York City woman who was caught with a dead newborn baby in a bag while trying to shoplift in Victoria’s Secret has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Tiona Rodriguez, now 21, was caught in 2013 with the baby boy, whom she had suffocated in the bathroom of a friend’s apartment soon after she gave birth to him. A guard who suspected her of shoplifting at the lingerie store in Manhattan found the baby.

Rodriguez was 17 years old at the time.

The sentencing comes after Rodriguez was able to strike a deal to plead guilty for manslaughter rather than first-degree murder, according to the New York Daily News.  She was facing a life sentence before the plea deal.

“We hope [this sentencing] brings justice to the baby boy who never got to life his life,” Assistant District Attorney Chloe Kendall said in court Thursday.

Another newborn child of Rodriguez had died in a bathroom in 2012, but police were unable to establish the cause of death.