The woman accused of abandoning her baby daughter along a rural road pleaded guilty in Stark County Court.
Kendra Meaker, 19, of Toulon, Illinois, was charged the day after she reported her infant daughter, Mia Graci Thompson, missing. Police said Meaker told them her daughter had been taken from her car as it was parked at the Toulon Post Office.
The three-week-old baby was found alone and alive along a gravel road in rural Stark County about 12 hours after she was reported missing.
Meaker was charged with felony obstructing justice and misdemeanor endangering the life/health of a child. Stark County Sheriff Jimmie Dison said Meaker confessed to abandoning the baby.
The Peoria Journal Star reported prosecutors said Meaker’s choice to leave her daughter along the road was a split-second decision she made, hoping someone who could take better care of the baby would find her.
Mia Gracie has since been in the care of other family members.
A doctor said Meaker was competent to stand trial in a report filed with the court in November.
Meaker was scheduled to have a pre-trial conference Friday, January 11, 2013. Court records show Meaker entered a guilty plea at that hearing.
Kendra Meaker has been held in the Stark County Jail since she was charged. She remains there to await sentencing, which was scheduled for March 8, 2013.
