By Carla Zanoni, Shayna Jacobs and Ben Fractenberg

DNAinfo Staff

MANHATTAN — A Washington Heights mother whose miscarried fetus was found dead and wrapped in plastic bags inside a trash can in an alley next to her home has been arrested and charged with self-induced abortion, police said Thursday.

Yaribely Almonte, 20, faces first degree self-abortion, a class A misdemeanor, for the death of her female fetus, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Thursday. Sources said the pregnancy was about 24 weeks along, which is on the threshold between a first-degree and second-degree misdemeanor, a lesser charge.

The charge, which carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail, applies to a woman who "commits or submits to an abortional act upon herself which causes her miscarriage, unless such abortional act is justifiable."

Sources said that Almonte, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, told investigators that she had taken an herbal tea before delivering the baby, who was stillborn.

The fetus was discovered by the super of Almonte's 191st Street building on Nov. 29 inside a box that was buried beneath other trash bags inside a bin, the super's son told DNAinfo.