ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A mother pleaded guilty Friday to throwing her baby off a bridge into an eastern Pennsylvania river, telling the judge she wanted her 20-month-old son to go to heaven.
"I dropped him, yes," 21-year-old Johnesha Perry told Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach, "because I wanted to die with him and go to heaven," The (Allentown) Morning Call reported.
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Banach sentenced Perry to 20 to 40 years in state prison on the third-degree murder charge. She will be eligible for parole after she turns 40.
Authorities say Perry gave her son Zymier a kiss before tossing him off the Hamilton Street Bridge into the Lehigh River 50 feet below in May 2015. She then jumped but managed to reach shore with a broken arm. The child was pulled out of the water about 700 yards downstream but died six days later.
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Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed the woman's childhood of abuse and neglect was tragic. She also had a long history of mental illness. Chief Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Makoul called it the most "emotional, heart-wrenching" case in her 26 years practicing law. At times during the hearing, defense attorney Kate Smith cried openly.
"(Perry's case) tells a story of somebody who lost hope that anything could ever be different," Banach said in accepting the guilty plea and sentencing Perry. "You have to have hope, Johnesha."