COLUMBIA, Md. — Editor's Note: The video above was published on April 25, 2019.
A Columbia woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday by a Howard County Circuit Court judge after she was found guilty of killing her newborn son.
According to a press release from the Howard County State’s Attorney’s Office, Moira Akers, 41, was found guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse on April 11, resulting in the death of an incident involving the birth of her child.
On November 1, 2018, Howard County Police were called to Howard County General Hospital, after Akers was taken from her home by paramedics.
Akers initially did not let medical personnel know she had given birth until she was confronted by them at the hospital about the child's body. She told them that the baby was stillborn.
According to Howard County officials, medical personnel discovered the birth and shortly after, investigators went inside of her residence as they were conducting a welfare check. Investigators found the newborn baby boy wrapped in towels in a zipped plastic bag under a blanket in a closet with the door closed.
An autopsy was performed on the child and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner classified the death as a homicide.
A report released by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner stated that the baby boy was a healthy, full-term baby and alive when he was born.
The baby boy died from asphyxiation and exposure.