Kansas City, Mo. ? A woman accused of killing an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb asked for a public defender Tuesday in one of her first steps of what’s likely to be a long legal journey.

Federal prosecutors have charged Lisa Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., with kidnapping resulting in death. She is accused of strangling eight-months-pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting the baby from her womb during a Dec. 16 attack at Stinnett’s home in Skidmore.

Tuesday marked Montgomery’s first court appearance in Missouri after the trial was transferred from the other side of the state line in Kansas.

Shackled at the ankles, waist and wrists and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, Montgomery answered quietly — often inaudibly to the those gathered in the courtroom — to a series of questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Maughmer in a hearing Tuesday that lasted just about 10 minutes.

“Have you read a copy of this complaint?” Maughmer asked.

“Yes, I have,” Montgomery said timidly.

The queries continued: how frequently did she receive a paycheck (every two weeks), does she own a car (a 1986 Isuzu Trooper), how many children does she have (four).

Based on her answers, Maughmer said Montgomery would qualify for a public defender. Two such lawyers, Anita Burns and David Owen, were in the court, but it was not clear if they would be permanently assigned to the case.

Burns and Owen left without speaking to reporters. A receptionist at the public defender’s office said Owen was unavailable this week; a message left with Burns was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.

Maughmer advised Montgomery that she could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted as she is currently charged.

U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said “we’re way too early to make a determination” on whether prosecutors would seek the death penalty.

Montgomery is scheduled to return to court Thursday afternoon for a detention hearing, and prosecutors already have asked she be denied bond. The defense has not said if they’ll seek her release.

Kevin Montgomery, the suspect’s husband, did not appear to be in the courtroom Tuesday, nor did the victim’s husband, Zeb Stinnett.

Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, was found by her mother in a pool of blood, her midsection sliced open. The day of the killing, officials say Montgomery called her husband from Topeka, Kan., and told him she had just delivered a baby girl.

Authorities said the baby was found a day later, Dec. 17, with Montgomery and her husband in Melvern. The infant, named Victoria Jo Stinnett, spent that weekend in a Topeka hospital before going home with her widowed father.