Twenty-year-old Christopher Fitzpatrick sat silently as a Wayne County judge read the statement in which police say he admitted killing his newborn daughter with a cinderblock on May 28.
In a separate hearing, 28-year-old Jennifer Barrise burst into tears and repeatedly turned to her mother.
Prosecutors say Barrise gave birth to the girl in a car and Fitzpatrick took the baby to a wooded area in Lake Ariel and killed it.
Police say Fitzpatrick told investigators he killed the baby because the couple couldn't afford another child.
Authorities say Barrise knew her boyfriend's plan but Barrise's mother says the woman believed Fitzpatrick was dropping the child off at a hospital.
