Mother pleads guilty in death of Scotty McMillan

WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- A mother has pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the beating death of her young son in Chester County and agreed to testify against her former boyfriend in his capital murder trial.

Thirty-three-year-old Jillian Tait also pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and child endangerment in the November 2014 death of 3-year-old Scotty McMillan in Coatesville.

Prosecutors said the plea agreement will spare Tait a possible death sentence and she will be a "critical witness" in the first-degree murder trial of 25-year-old Gary Lee Fellenbaum III.

Authorities allege that the boy was hung upside down and beaten with fists, metal rods, whips and a frying pan, and the couple went shopping and ate pizza as he lay dying after weeks of escalating abuse.

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