Rosalind Fletcher, who was charged with the death of her 3-month-old baby, pleaded guilty in District Court on Thursday to second-degree murder and child abuse and neglect.

She was originally charged with murder by child abuse, which carries a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, and three counts of abuse and neglect, each punishable with a sentence of two to 20 years in prison.

In exchange for her guilty plea, prosecutors lowered the charges against her. For the second-degree murder charge she faces 10 to 25 years in prison or 10 to life, plus two to 20 years for the one remaining count of child abuse.

She will be sentenced Jan. 9 by District Judge Valorie Vega.

An injury to the skull caused the infant's death, but he had several other injuries when he died, including rib fractures and fractures to the tibial metaphyseal bones, near the ankles of both legs, according to the coroner.

"A lot of people will say it's from shaking," prosecutor Vicki Monroe said, describing how the violent swinging of the legs can cause the fracture.

Outside the courtroom, she told defense attorney Norman Reed, a deputy public defender, she believed his client got a good deal.

He said Fletcher had only agreed to the negotiation moments before she appeared in Vega's courtroom Thursday. He said she did not explain to him how the death occurred.

"She will soon," he said. "I expect a full detailed statement."

Her son, Jaliel Fletcher, was born in October 2005, two months premature, Fletcher told police in January. He stayed at University Medical Center until January, when Fletcher brought him home.

Shortly afterward, on Jan. 20, Fletcher's mother, who had cared for Jaliel while Fletcher worked, died, prompting Fletcher to stop going to her job and to drink heavily, according to the police report.

Fletcher told police that on the morning of Jan. 28 her son wouldn't eat and slept most of the day.

Her brother Jonathan lived in the same apartment complex at 512 N. 13th St., near Bonanza Road and Maryland Parkway, and called her at 1:50 p.m. She then told him that her son was sick and would not wake up, she told police. Jonathan Fletcher came over, saw the baby was unresponsive and called 911, according to the police report.

When paramedics arrived, they noticed red marks on the child's cheek along with a bruise over the right eyebrow area.

At Sunrise Hospital, doctors found scratches all over the baby's body.Jaliel's temperature was 84 degrees upon arrival, meaning he had been dead for hours, losing approximately one degree of body temperature each hour, authorities said.

The autopsy revealed a large "Y" shaped fracture to the right side of the skull, two fractures to the left side and yellow gold discoloration of the brain, indicating old bleeding, or old wounds to the brain.

The rib fractures were seven to 10 days old.

The injury around the left eyes probably occurred not long before death, the coroner said.

Fletcher said she was the sole caretaker of the baby the day he died, but had maintained that she did not know how he received the injuries.