Woman pleads guilty to murdering step-grandson

OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) - A woman who confessed to killing 4-year-old Matal Sanchez in the summer of 2005 has pleaded guilty to murder.

Christine Coffman, 45, who was the boy's stepgrandmother, had been expected to use an insanity defense at a trial scheduled for next month.

If a Clackamas County judge approves the plea agreement, Coffman will be sentenced to life in prison. If her case had gone before a jury, Coffman could have faced the death penalty.

The Milwaukie boy vanished June 29, 2005, triggering a frantic, multi-day search that gained national attention. But police quickly focused on Coffman, and she acknowledged killing the boy by hitting him in the head with a rock.

Coffman offered no motive for her actions but led police to the boy's lifeless body in the wooded foothills of the Cascades.

A psychologist testified that Coffman was mentally competent to enter a guilty plea, Greg Horner, deputy district attorney, said Monday.

Matal's parents are Laura and Daniel Acevedo. Daniel Acevedo is Coffman's son. It's unclear when Coffman became a part of Matal's life.

"I just got out of the bathroom, and the house was empty, and I noticed that (Coffman's) car was gone, so I knew she went to go run some errands," Laura Acevedo told a police dispatcher after she first realized her son was missing in 2005. "I thought maybe she took him with her, but both the car seats are here. I know she wouldn't take him without the car seat."

Coffman initially told police she was away picking blackberries, donating blood and running errands. But blackberries weren't ripe on the route she described. Investigators also learned that she had purchased raspberries from a store, and a forensic scientist said red stains on her shirt appeared to be berries smeared over blood.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)