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Woman Pleads Guilty To Stabbing Newborn Daughter To Death

SANTA ANA (CBS) — A 20-year-old woman pleaded guilty to stabbing her newborn daughter to death just as opening statements were to be made in her murder trial Tuesday.

Yoselin Torres Tovar of Fullerton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for using a deadly weapon.

A jury was selected Monday and attorneys were set to make opening statement Tuesday.

Tovar gave birth to the girl between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. on April 18, 2010 in the bathroom of her family's home in Fullerton, Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy said when charges were filed two years ago. Tovar stabbed the newborn multiple times, then wrapped up the body and put it in her bedroom closet, McGreevy said.

When family members saw blood on Tovar, they took her to St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton, where physicians determined she had just given birth. Police found the baby's body.

Tovar is expected to be sentenced to 16 years to life in prison when she is sentenced on June 1.

(©2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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