NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A mother has pleaded guilty to murdering her 6-year-old son by suffocating him with a pillow.
Alice O'Donnell, 44, of Highland Park, admitted Wednesday that she gave her son, Phillip, pills that would make him sleepy and then suffocated him.
O'Donnell was scheduled to go on trial next week for the February 2005 murder.
Under her plea agreement, she faces 30 years in prison without parole and avoids a life sentence.
She is scheduled to be sentenced May 5 in New Brunswick by state Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz.
``I think she's probably relieved to have this put behind her,'' her attorney, H. Todd Hess, an assistant deputy public defender in Middlesex County, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Thursday's newspaper. ``She loved her son very much, and that's how other people described her, as a loving and doting mother.''
Police said O'Donnell had tried to kill herself, but inflicted superficial wounds to her arms. She was questioned by police after they determined she had minor wounds.
``She didn't do what she did to hurt him; she did what she did to save him,'' Hess said. ``She sent him to heaven and tried to follow, although she was somewhat inept at attempting to kill herself.''
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