Mother Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter In Death Of Disabled Daughter

(CBS) -- A terminally ill mother who admitted to killing her special needs daughter pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on Tuesday.

CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker has more on why it happened.

It is almost a year to the day, May of 2015, that Bonnie Liltz admitted to killing her 28-year-old severely disabled daughter, Courtney. Both were found unconscious at her Schaumburg apartment from an overdose of various medications.

Friends says the suicide note Liltz left behind indicated she feared she'd lose her battle with cancer and didn't want her daughter to return to an institution where she had once received poor care.

"When she picked her up she was diaper rashed and she was filthy and her hair was filthy and she was angry," said friend Gloria Cheever.

"She is a loving, caring, giving person who would give you the shirt off her back," said Attorney Thomas Glasgow. "This is not something where there was malice. There was not anger. There was not hatred toward the child. There was no abuse. This is something that was an act of love."

Prosecutors seemed to show an act of mercy, reducing the original charge of first degree murder to involuntary manslaughter. To that Liltz pleaded guilty and the sentencing hearing began.

Friends, neighbors and family told the judge Liltz had adopted Courtney when the child was four, despite her handicap and despite Liltz'z own health problems. Her failing health is another reason they argued Liltz should not go to jail.

"She's not a well person," said friend Eleanor Berge. "If anything happened to her, Courtney, she didn't want her institutionalized and she felt she was better off, I suppose, going with Courtney."

The judge will sentence Wednesday. Lilitz can be sentenced to a maximum of fourteen years, a minimum of three years or 30 months of probation.