Mother enters plea in adopted baby death

SPRING HILL, Tenn. (AP) -- A Spring Hill woman who admitted she struck the head of her adopted Chinese daughter on a coffee table has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and reckless homicide.

Thirty-six-year-old Jennifer Alvey struck a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid a murder trial.

Prosecutors dropped first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges in exchange for her agreement to let a judge decide how a 15-year sentence should be served.

Alvey told police that on Oct. 19 she was busy in the kitchen and her 20-month-old daughter, Emma, "was fussing."

She said she shook the child "without thinking" and the toddler hit her head on the coffee table. Alvey said she put the child down for a nap and she never woke up.

She died several days later at Vanderbilt University Medical Center