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OGDEN — A Riverdale woman has admitted to killing her 2-month-old son in January.
Bryce Jo Harkins, 27, pleaded guilty Thursday, Dec. 5, to murder, a first-degree felony. She has been held in the Weber County Jail since she was arrested and charged in January.
The mandatory minimum sentence, according to plea documents, is 15 years to life in prison.
Riverdale police and medical teams responded to a call of a baby not breathing. "The individual who called dispatch stated that the baby was 'gone' over and over," according to a police booking affidavit.
The 2-month-old baby was found dead at the scene with multiple injuries, police say.
Harkins admitted to police she had punched her son in the head because "he would not stop crying," according to plea documents. It was "a hard punch," and "her son then started to turn pale and would breathe off and on and then stopped breathing."
Harkins also admitted to hitting the baby in the weeks leading up to his death, charging documents say, backing-handing her son to the head leaving a bruise, dropping him 1 to 2 feet into his crib, and pressing down on his chest.
During an autopsy on Jan. 16, the medical examiner reported that the boy "suffered a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain as the immediate cause of death," according to plea documents.
Another child was in the home, the arrest affidavit says, but police have not given any additional information. Almost a year after the death of the boy, his name remains unreleased.
Harkins will be sentenced on Jan. 24.
