A woman who left her newborn son alone for about two weeks to die, then put his body in a suitcase and placed it in a ditch near her home, was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.

Dana Deegan, 35, of White Shield, pleaded guilty in December to a charge of second-degree murder. She admitted abandoning her son in her home in Mandaree shortly after giving birth in 1998, then putting his body in a suitcase and leaving it in a nearby ditch on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Authorities said the child died of starvation and dehydration.

Deegan tearfully asked U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland for leniency Monday, saying she wanted to continue taking care of her three daughters, who were between the ages of 1 and 5 at the time her son was born.

“Please allow me to continue my work as a mother to my children,” she pleaded.

Hovland, who appeared to get teary-eyed, called the case “probably one of the saddest tragedies that I have seen.”

Two years ago, Hovland sentenced Deegan’s brother-in-law to 18 years in prison for killing her brother. Hovland said he was sympathetic to her lifelong history as a victim of abuse.

Deegan’s court-appointed attorney, Bill Schmidt, asked the judge to consider sentencing Deegan to probation.

Deegan must report to federal authorities May 30 to begin serving her sentence.

Mandaree is about 100 miles northwest of Bismarck.