Guilty Plea In Possible Munchausen Death

[The Straight Story]

Guilty Plea In Possible Munchausen Death
Woman Pleads Guilty In Death Of 2-Year-Old Daughter


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A former Jacksonville woman has pleaded guilty to causing the death of her young daughter.

Wednesday's second-degree murder plea was part of a deal that will prevent 29-year-old Amanda Ann Butler from spending life in prison. She was charged in 2006 with killing 2-year-old Cheyenne four years earlier. The toddler died after her parents drove her to a Jacksonville hospital with what her mother said was the last in a series of seizures.

Prosecutors considered it a possible case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder that prompted her to harm her children for attention. Authorities say Butler later tried to suffocate her son in a West Virginia hospital.

A north Florida circuit judge can sentence Butler up to 45 years in prison at a Feb. 12 hearing.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/22097635/detail.html