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CINCINNATI (AP) — The mother of a 2-year-old Ohio girl who was starved and beaten to death pleaded no contest to murder and child endangering charges on Wednesday.
Andrea Bradley, 31, entered the plea in a Hamilton County courtroom in Cincinnati. Bradley and her boyfriend were both charged in the March 29, 2015, death of their daughter, Glenara Bates.
County prosecutors said the child had belt and bite marks, bruises, missing teeth, broken ribs, head trauma and other injuries. She weighed only 13 pounds when she died.
Bradley's attorney, William Welsh, said that she is "definitely remorseful" and that the "long, enduring case has had lasting emotional effects on her."
The Cincinnati woman also had been charged with aggravated murder. She turned down a plea deal in 2016 that would have removed the death penalty if she had been convicted of that charge. A judge later ruled that Bradley was not eligible for the death penalty even if convicted of aggravated murder, after a psychologist's report found that Bradley is intellectually disabled. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the U.S. Constitution
Bradley could get 23 years to life in prison at her Jan. 24 sentencing.
The child's father, Glen Bates, was convicted of aggravated murder in 2016 and sentenced to death.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters had said in a statement announcing the indictments of Bradley and Bates in April 2015 that Glenara's injuries were inflicted over an extended period of time.
"The abuse this baby suffered is beyond belief," he said.
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