The Toledo mother accused of killing her newborn child and putting the baby in a freezer changed her plea on Friday morning to guilty.
21-year-old Kenisha Pruitt was then sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years.
Pruitt was in tears in the Lucas County Common Pleas courtroom as she admitted to Judge Linda Jennings that she did it, but Judge Jennings didn't hold back before sentencing.
"Ms. Pruitt, How could you do this?" says Judge Jennings. "How could you carry this baby inside you for nine months and feel it move every day and then kill it? How could you do this? You committed the most heinous act imaginable. And if it could be any worse it was made worse by the fact that you planned it."
Pruitt reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder and was sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after 20 years.
"I'm really sorry for everything I did," says Pruitt. "I want to apologize to my family and the baby's father's family."
Pruitt admitted in court how she killed her baby who was found last April inside of a freezer in the East Toledo home she shared with her boyfriend Antonio Cervantes. She answered "yes" to a series of questions from her defense attorney Jim Anderson.
Pruitt admits on January 30th of 2012 she gave birth in the bathroom while Cervantes was in the room. Pruitt says she then got in the bath tub and submerged the baby underwater, holding the baby there. She says she then handed the baby back to Cervantes as the baby was still breathing. Pruitt admitted she then used a shoelace to tie the baby's throat. She says Cervantes then left the bathroom and told Pruitt he wrapped the baby in plastic and put the baby in a freezer.
Three months later in April the landlord of the home found the baby in the freezer. Pruitt and Cervantes had recently moved out of the home.
Pruitt's family did not want to comment to 13 ABC in the hallway outside the courtroom.
People who live on Paine in East Toledo are relieved Pruitt didn't get away with murdering her baby.
"I'm glad she admitted it," says Nada Dia, a neighbor. "I mean, a mom to kill her own kid, come on. There's a fire station not even a block away from the home. She could've given the baby up and let the baby have a life. I have four beautiful kids and never can imagine someone to go through something like that. And a baby!"
"It's a little child," says Alex Perez, a neighbor. "Why are you going to destroy something that is supposed to be so pure?"
"I think she should've got the death penalty, to be honest," says Monica Halasz, a neighbor. "They both made that baby and to do that to your own child both together, that's disgusting. I hope they get the same thing and I hope they rot in hell."
Cervantes also faces charges in the baby's death. He's due in court in March.
Prosecutors believe the Cervantes case will also be resolved before going to trial.
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