Teen mom accused of killing newborn, going shopping with body

A teenage girl from New York is accused of suffocating her newborn baby boy before putting his body in a shopping bag, then going on a shopping trip to Victoria's Secret with the body the next day.

Tiona Rodriguez, now 18, was caught shoplifting at the lingerie store in 2013. That's when a security guard found the body in a bag she was carrying. 

Her lawyer said on Thursday it was a stillbirth, the Associated Press reported. She pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

During the investigation, Manhattan Assistant District Rachel Ferrari said Rodriguez became a mother at 14 and was determined to hide her second pregnancy. She said Rodriguez went to a friend's house to deliver the baby and asphyxiated him after tearing the umbilical cord with her hands.

According to the prosecutor, the teen sent texts later on saying she would "dig a hole" and "put it somewhere," followed by an "LOL."

Rodriguez' defense lawyer, Earl Ward, said she didn't know she was pregnant and after the birth, found no pulse.

"She's a confused young girl who had no idea what to do with the fetus after it was stillborn," he said. 

Prosecutors say she had another child in 2012 who did not survive. Rodriguez texted her then-boyfriend about burning the body to disguise it.

Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com.  Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva