A Cincinnati mother accused of starving and beating her daughter to death has accepted a plea deal.
Andrea Bradley, 31, pleaded no contest in Hamilton County, Ohio, on Wednesday. It is the second deal she was offered in her case. She previously rejected an agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table in exchange for a guilty plea. The court then ruled Bradley was intellectually disabled. That meant she was automatically spared from lethal injection, as the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing someone with an intellectual disability (formerly referred to as “mental retardation”) is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the U.S. Constitution.
Bradley faces 23 years to life in prison. She was initially charged with aggravated murder and endangering a child.
The baby’s father, 35-year-old Glen Bates, was given the death penalty in the case. He was found guilty in 2016 of two counts of murder and one count of endangering a child.
The body of 2-year-old Glenara Bates was littered with C-shaped contusions, scratches and bite marks too numerous to count, prosecutors said. She had broken ribs, missing teeth and head injuries, including one that had been closed with a sewing needled and thread. The toddler also weighed only 13 pounds when she died, half of a normal 2-year-old. The assistant Hamilton County coroner who performed the little girl’s autopsy said the case is one of the worst the office has ever seen.
Glen Bates, 34 (left, in court on Monday), was sentenced to death by an Ohio judge on… https://t.co/sqV7oAtcJQ pic.twitter.com/9p3vdbTOqc
— David Trender (@IceTrends) October 18, 2016
In addition to starving her, Bates and Bradley forced Glenara to sleep in a bathtub full of feces and urine. Bates told police they made her daughter sleep in the tub because of a “bed-wetting problem.” Authorities say the child was rarely changed during the extended abuse, causing diaper rash to spread to her legs and lower back. She had also been burned.
A chilling part of the case, officials say, was the testimony of Glenara’s older sister, who told the jury during Bates’ trial how on March 29, 2015, she witnessed the blow that ended her life. She said her baby sister was crying when Bates grabbed her by the feet and swung her head-first into a door frame. Glenara’s little body went limp and her swollen eyes closed for the last time after that, the 10-year-old testified.
Bradley brought Glenara to the hospital, where she died. The couple was arrested that night.
“The abuse this baby suffered is beyond belief,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters told the Associated Press.
Bradley’s sentencing is set for January 24.
