A Montgomery County, Maryland, mother has pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible for starving her child to death in June 2020.
Kiearra Tolson made the plea on Monday, which is the state’s version of a plea of guilty by reason of insanity.
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said Tolson entered the plea for the two charges against her, murder and child abuse first degree resulting in death. Both are felony charges with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Tolson, 23, is accused of not giving her 15-month-old daughter Blair Niles food over the course of 3 1/2 half weeks, which resulted in the girl’s death. Once the child died, Tolson is accused of putting the baby into a blue pillowcase and discarding the child’s body in a dumpster at her Silver Spring apartment complex. The child’s body was never found.
A month after her arrest, Tolson was found not competent to stand trial.
The state’s attorney’s office said the next step in the case will be for another hearing to be held that will decide if Tolson is a danger to herself or the community. No date for that hearing has been set.
