A Maple Grove mother pleaded guilty to giving her 12-year-old daughter heroin, the Hennepin County attorney's office announced Wednesday.
Rebecca Rachelle Hill, 37, pleaded guilty to a second-degree drug charge and is expected to receive four years in prison. Charges of child endangerment, motor vehicle theft and giving false information will be dropped, according to the attorney's office.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called to the Macy's store at the Mall of America in October because store security had caught Hill and her daughter stealing clothes. Hill was arrested on an outstanding warrant, and the girl was allowed to leave with her grandmother.
Hill told police that she and her daughter were homeless and that they sometimes slept in their stolen vehicle. She added that they both used heroin the day before shoplifting.
The next day, the girl's father told police that he had taken his daughter to the hospital because she was suffering from drug withdrawal. His daughter told him that Hill had been giving her heroin and marijuana regularly for several weeks.
The girl successfully made it through withdrawal. She is out of the hospital but continuing treatment. She is living with her father and stepmother.
Hill will be sentenced Feb. 12.
NICOLE NORFLEET
