WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A woman has pleaded guilty to suffocating a 5-year-old boy with a trash bag almost two decades ago and received a 30-year sentence.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports 35-year-old Karla Sevilla pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday for the October 1997 slaying of Michael "Mikki" Malcolm Jr. His body was found behind a West Palm Beach apartment trash bin with a plastic bag over his head.
Sevilla was 15 when she reported finding Mikki's body. She denied having anything to do with his death, but testing a decade later found her DNA under the boy's fingernails.
She was arrested in 2008 but her trial was delayed as she was found mentally incompetent.
Mikki's mother, Michie Robinson, said she accepted the plea bargain because a jury trial would have been risky.
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Information from: Sun Sentinel