A mother, accused of suffocating her baby because he wouldn't go to sleep, pleaded guilty Thursday to unintentional second-degree murder.
Triena D. Wofford, 23, faces a possible 12 1/2-year prison term when she is sentenced Jan. 30 by Ramsey County District Judge John Van de North.
Wofford and her year-old son, Jeremiah, were at a Ramsey County family shelter on May 1 when, she told Maplewood police, Jeremiah wouldn't take a nap.
She told police that she sat on him and straddled his legs while he was facedown, according to the criminal complaint.
In a later interview with state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators, Wofford said that she had pushed her son up against the side of the bed with her body and that she eventually discovered he had stopped breathing.
An autopsy on the baby found that he had suffered numerous injuries including internal bleeding in the head, scarring on his back and legs, and hemorrhaging around one eye and inside his lips.
Wofford, who has six other children, told police that her son was a difficult child and that she would get frustrated and angry with him. She admitted she hit the boy with her slippers, and had pushed
him into a corner where he might have hit his head.
She also said that the scarring on his back and legs occurred when she deliberately placed him in a scalding shower as punishment.