Woman who admitted snatching newborn at Penn. hospital is sentenced

[June 25, 2014]  (Reuters) - A woman who admitted posing as a nurse and grabbing a newborn baby from a Pittsburgh hospital apologized on Tuesday in court and was sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Breona Moore, 21, of East McKeesport pleaded guilty to taking the 3-day-old baby from Magee-Womens Hospital on Aug. 23, 2012, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

She and the baby were found about six hours later hiding in a janitorial closet in a Pittsburgh office building, it said. The baby was unharmed.

Moore apologized in the Allegheny County Courtroom on Tuesday, local media said.

"No mother should have to go through that heartbreak," she said. "All I wanted to do was to love someone."

Defense attorney Blaine Jones said afterward he was pleased with Moore's sentence and said she struggled with mental health issues.

"She was remorseful from the moment she was able to get mentally better," Jones said to reporters. He said she had been extremely upset after learning she was unable to have children.

"Breona knew that she had done wrong," he said.

She faced the possibility of 60 years in prison, according to local media.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Bill Trott)

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