>>Texas woman charged with murder after punching pregnant hospital worker in stomach, causing loss of pregnancy

A Texas woman was charged with murder after she was accused of punching a pregnant woman and causing her to lose her child, authorities said Monday.

The suspect, Cheri Akil, 39, was an inmate of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office last week when she was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

She had to be “restrained because she was potentially suicidal.” Akil is alleged to have punched a pregnant hospital staff member in the stomach, and the staffer was immediately taken to a trauma unit for treatment.

“An ultrasound was performed and it was determined that the unborn child no longer had a pulse,” the sheriff’s statement said.

Akil had been in custody on an allegation of credit card fraud before the incident.

Defense attorney Kathy Lowthorp was assigned Akil’s case on Tuesday afternoon and said she had no knowledge of the evidence against her new client.

A homicide charge tied to the death of a fetus is a rare but not totally uncommon application of murder statutes in Texas, Lowthorp said.

“It doesn’t mean that it can’t change,” she said of the charge. “It’s been handled more than one way.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com