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Francheska Torres, 23, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child in front of Court of Common Pleas Judge Thomas Sponaugle on Tuesday, according to the DA and court filings.
Torres’ two-month-old son died on July 18, 2020, just five days after police responded to a Lancaster city apartment and found the child in cardiac arrest, according to police at the time.
Emergency medical services transported the infant to Penn Medicine’s Lancaster General Hospital, but the infant was then transferred to Hershey Medical Center for further treatment where his “severe, life-threatening injury to the brain” as a result of an assault—killed him, as medical experts confirmed and was state in a police release at the time.
A forensic pathologist and treating doctors determined the infant would have been “immediately incapacitated” by an injury sustained in an assault, as stated in the release.
The infant’s cause of death was traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, according to the autopsy.
No other adults were in the apartment during the time of the assault and subsequent cardiac arrest, according to police.
Torres was arrested and charged on Aug. 14, 2020, according to court documents.
Torres, who appeared in court via video from Lancaster County Prison on Tuesday, according to the release.
She told the court that she understood her rights and willingly entered the guilty plea when asked by Judge Sponaugle, the release states.
Torres was sentenced to 8 to 16 years in prison on the two felony charges in what the judge referred to as a “tragedy,” according to the DA.
Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield prosecuted the case and Lancaster city police detective Jessica Higgins filed charges, according to the release by the DA.
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