A mother who admitted to abusing her autistic daughter was sentenced to spend 10 to 22 years in prison on Wednesday in what was described as a failed murder-suicide attempt.

Michigan's 46-year-old Kelli Rai Stapleton entered a guilty plea for one count of child abuse last month in an attempt to bargain with prosecutors who had dismissed an attempted murder charge. Stapleton reportedly drove her daughter, Isabelle, to an isolated area in Benzie County where she gave her sleeping pills and tried to kill her and herself.

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According to reports, Stapleton put two charcoal-burning grill inside their vehicle in an attempted murder-suicide in Sept. 2013. However, both of them survived.

Her daughter, who is now 15 years old, had been under a coma for a few days after suffering severe brain damage as a result of the incident.

Though mostly stabilized, her condition remains a concern for the family as she still has memory loss and balance issues.

On Wednesday, Circuit Judge James Batzer rendered Stapleton's sentence to range within a minimum of 10 years imprisonment less the 399 days she had already served and set her maximum sentence to 22 years.

During the series of hearings, Stapleton's kin delivered a variety of testimonies expressing their shock over the Michigan mother's behaviour and citing that 46-year-old woman acted out of character.

She also noted that Stapleton had been "broken" and "desperate" after struggling to get help for her autistic daughter whom she received physical assaults from.

In her statement, Stapleton's grandmother disagreed with Kelli's stepmother noting that she did not want Isabelle anymore as indicated by her hesitance to go through with the suicide attempt.

"She is smart enough, strong enough and determined enough that if she wanted to kill herself she would be dead," Eileen Stapleton, Kelli Stapleton's grandmother, explained.

Meanwhile, the defendant explained to authorities how she decided that "going to heaven" with her daughter would have been the best solution to her dilemma.

After examining her in July, forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman revealed in court that the 46-year-old mother is suffering from post-traumatic stress and bipolar disorders deeming her "legally insane" during the murder-suicide attempt.

Tagsinsane, mother, murder-suicide, sentence, Imprisonment