A St. Paul woman accused of smothering her infant to death last year was found mentally competent Friday to stand trial in court.
The decision is a reversal of a ruling in December that found Shwe Htoo incompetent to stand trial.
Htoo, 22, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of second-degree murder in the Nov. 18 death of her 1-month-old son.
According to the criminal complaint against Htoo: She covered her son, Michael Kyaw Htoo, with a blanket and then pressed a hand into his face, alternating hands for five minutes until he stopped crying and moving.
The previous night, she allegedly had tried to kill him by feeding him poisoned formula. When that didn't work, she smothered him the next morning, then attempted suicide by driving a car into a light pole in Como Regional Park.
Her dead son was strapped into a carrier in the back seat.
"This morning — I killed my own child," Htoo allegedly told police.
Htoo was suffering from postpartum depression, which can overwhelm mothers with depression, anxiety and mournful feelings soon after childbirth, court records indicated.
