YOHUSUE JUARBE-TORRES - 14 Months - Allentown PA

Authorities don't know exactly when the heavy dresser fell on the 14-month-old child, crushing the toddler's chest and killing him.The only person with him when he was struck was his 2 ½-year-old sister.The mother of the children, Marianella Torres-Matos, had locked the toddlers in the bedroom of her Allentown apartment around 11:30 a.m. Nov. 19 while she and a friend visited an inmate in Lehigh County Prison, pawned an item at a pawn shop and bought some groceries, according to a time line developed by authorities.Sometime after 1:30 p.m., Torres-Matos returned to her 524 Tilghman St. home. But she still didn't check on her kids. Instead, she fixed some lunch and headed to the corner store for cigarettes. After returning from the corner store, she realized her son, Yohusue Juarbe-Torres, had been crushed. "The child was found under a 160-pound fallen dresser," Lehigh County Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk told a judge Thursday as Torres-Matos wept. The 27-year-old woman then pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, a felony. In return for her plea, misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangering were dropped. But the involuntary manslaughter charge Torres-Matos pleaded guilty to is the most serious. She also pleaded guilty to retail theft and corruption of minors, both misdemeanors, in an unrelated case Torres-Matos, who appeared in court in a beige prison jumpsuit and handcuffs, faces up to 15 years in prison. She's scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 1 by President Judge William H. Platt. Torres-Matos didn't speak Thursday, other than to answer "yes" or "no" through a Spanish-speaking interpreter to Platt's questions. She bowed her head and cried hard when Falk noted that her son died the day of the injury after being on life support at Lehigh Valley Hospital. The coroner's office ruled he died of blunt force trauma to the chest. Police used receipts, video and prison visitor records to build a time line of Torres-Matos' whereabouts that day. In the retail theft case, Falk said Torres-Matos stole $160 worth of items Sept. 22, 2009, from a Walmart in Lower Macungie Township. Falk said she went to the store with a 10-year-old child and put price tags for less expensive items on the items she wanted. The prosecutor said Torres-Matos went to the self-checkout line and scanned just a few of the items to purchase. Torres-Matos has been in Lehigh County Prison under $50,000 bail since her arrest in March on the involuntary manslaughter case, according to court records.