JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A woman already convicted of attempting to smother her son at Cabell Huntington Hospital in 2003 now has pleaded guilty to murdering her 2-year-old daughter in Florida in 2002.

Amanda Ann Butler, 29, faces up to 45 years in prison for second-degree murder under terms of a plea bargain that she made with the State Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville, Fla., on Wednesday. Her sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 12.

She was scheduled to stand trial this month and faced up to life in prison for the death of her daughter, Cheyenne.

The toddler died mysteriously at a Jacksonville hospital in 2002 after her parents drove her to a Jacksonville hospital with what her mother said was the last in a series of seizures.

Authorities, however, suspected Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a mental disorder that prompts parents to harm their children for attention.

Butler gave birth to a son, Ryley, after Cheyenne’s death and moved to West Virginia in 2003. She began taking the newborn to doctors and hospitals, complaining of seizures. That prompted the Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to get a court order allowing investigators to secretly videotape Butler and her son in a hospital room at Cabell Huntington Hospital.

Butler was caught on tape placing a washcloth or rag over her 3-month-old son’s mouth and nose for 42 seconds. She entered a no contest plea to child abuse in Cabell Circuit Court and was sentenced in May 2005 to one to five years in prison.

After a long legal battle, prosecutors in Jacksonville won the right to use the tape against Butler in Cheyenne’s death.

Since then, prosecutors in Florida learned of other children Butler cared for where she also reported seizures. They said Butler also admitted to cellmates in West Virginia that she smothered Cheyenne at the family’s home near Jacksonville Naval Air Station, according to The Florida Times-Union.

Court records indicate Butler did that to cause seizures in hopes that the Navy would send her husband, Aaron, home, according to The Times-Union. He divorced Butler after she got pregnant while he was deployed overseas.

Huntington Police Sgt. Kendra Beckett, who worked on Butler’s case in West Virginia, said she was thrilled Wednesday when she learned of Butler’s plea agreement.

“My understanding is that investigators in Florida had always suspected Amanda in Cheyenne’s death, but didn’t have enough evidence,” Beckett said. “The video surveillance showing her smothering Ryley at the hospital was what they needed to convict Amanda in Cheyenne’s death and not let her get away with what she did.”

Beckett said Butler’s convictions in both West Virginia and Florida are products of the medical and law enforcement communities working together.

“Cabell Huntington Hospital deserves a lot of credit,” Beckett said. “It cost them a fortune to set up cameras in that room and monitor them around the clock until we got what we were looking for.”

SOURCE:  http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x300701370/Ex-resident-admits-she-killed-her-daughter