Traci Carpenter leaves Hamilton County Criminal Court with her attorney Lee Davis after she pleaded guilty to child abuse in the 2006 death of her 18-month-old daughter Sierra.Traci Carpenter has pleaded guilty to child abuse in the 2006 death of her 18-month-old daughter Sierra.
She faces 2-4 years in prison. The sentencing hearing will be on May 19.
Carpenter had faced as much as a 25-year prison sentence if convicted onthe aggravated child neglect charge.
Sierra died on April 27, 2006. An autopsy revealed bleeding on the brain, among other injuries. That evidence was used a year after the toddler's death to charge Carpenter, and Brian Rutherford, who was Carpenter's boyfriend at the time.
Rutherford faced a charge of first-degree murder. A jury acquitted Rutherford of the murder charge in a November 2008 trial.
Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.