YORK, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty but mentally ill to third-degree murder in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, which police said she told a neighbor occurred because she had to “get the darkness” out of the child.
Regina Lester, 33, entered an open plea Wednesday, leaving the sentence to be imposed on June 27 up to the York County judge. Her attorney said she would seek a competency evaluation.
Police said Lester’s 6-year-old son ran to a neighbor’s house in June 2016 and said his mother was trying to kill his sister. The neighbor said she found Lester naked and “hugging a tree” outside her mobile home, and the woman said “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it. You understand I had to get the darkness out of her.” Police said she later banged on the door of another neighbor and said “I need to kill your kids.”
Her daughter, Isabella Godfrey, known as Bella, was found dead on the kitchen floor of the trailer. Regional police said an autopsy determined the cause of death to be a combination of blunt-force trauma, asphyxiation and a spinal injury. Police said they found open packages of synthetic marijuana and a smoking pipe near the child’s body.
Prosecutors said evidence indicated that Lester was “so under the influence of drugs” that she couldn’t have formed the intent to kill required to support a first-degree murder conviction, which would have carried a mandatory term of life without parole. Lester was involuntarily committed and spent more than a year in a state hospital before being deemed competent for trial.
Defense attorney Suzanne Smith said her client remains “heavily medicated,” is remorseful and misses her children, receiving visits and talking on the phone with her oldest son.
“Tragic event. Can’t take it back,” Smith said. “Every day, she lives with, ’No more daughter.’”
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