New York mother pleads guilty to setting house on fire to kill 2-year-old daughter

A 33-year-old woman from Syracuse, New York has admitted to setting her house on fire in a bid to kill her own 2-year-old daughter in March last year.

The woman, identified as Jennelle Gerton, set fire to several phones and electronic devices and left the child alone in the house to die. She even lied to the police officers about her child's whereabouts. However, the Syracuse Police officers managed to save the toddler just in time even though they found the child with "soot in her nose."

When officers responded... they heard smoke detectors and smelled smoke," said police. "Fearing that the child was inside, officers immediately went into action.

The officers had to break a window to gain entry into the house as the front door was locked. A mattress had also been placed against a window near the main entrance to hide the inside view, per police officials.

"The investigation revealed that Gerton had caused a fire in a bathroom and left the house while leaving her child behind," police stated.

Assistant District Attorney Judson Knappen has said that it is not clear why the mother wanted to kill her own child, but suggested that it was over a dispute with the baby's 56-year-old father Eric Bowens.

Bowens told the police officers that he had left the child with her mother, but when he returned home she was alone and the child was nowhere to be seen, and when he asked Gerton about the baby, she said that the child was with her grandparents.

Gerton has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and faces eight years in prison. She will be sentenced in May. Her sentence could be extended to between 11 and 14 years as she was also found to be in illegal possession of a rifle, according to a report in The Independent.