Woman pleads guilty in starvation of Joplin child

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A Joplin woman has pleaded guilty for her role in the starvation of a girl who weighed only 12 pounds when she was hospitalized at age 3.

Christina Haidle, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to felony child abuse in a plea deal that drops two other charges. Haidle lived with Beth Williams, 28, the girl's mother, who pleaded guilty last month to the same charge under a similar plea deal.

Prosecutors said when the girl was taken to a Joplin hospital in July 2012, she was unconscious, with a blood-sugar level of zero and a pulse so faint that hospital workers had to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, The Joplin Globe reported.

Haidle's plea agreement requires her to serve a minimum of five years before becoming eligible for parole. Haidle will be sentenced Feb. 10. Williams is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18. Circuit Judge David Dally on Monday ordered a sentencing-assessment report for Haidle.

Both women have remained in custody since their arrests in July 2012.

A doctor who cared for the girl throughout the first year of her life testified at a preliminary hearing last year that she became concerned about the child when she weighed only 17.6 pounds at her one-year checkup. The mother then stopped keeping regular appointments with the doctor.

The doctor testified that two months after being taken from the women's home, the girl had grown 2 inches and gained 15 pounds.