FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) A former babysitter pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday for the 2019 death of a man she was accused of disabling as an infant 40 years ago.

Terry McKirchy, 62, accepted a plea deal for the death of Benjamin Dowling, who died at 35 after a life of severe disabilities caused by a brain hemorrhage he suffered in 1984 when he was 5 months old while at McKirchys suburban Fort Lauderdale home. Investigators believed she caused the injury by shaking him.

In a letter of apology read to Dowlings parents by her attorney, assistant public defender David Fry, McKirchy said she was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by taking care of numerous children and struck him, causing his injuries.

McKirchy, who now lives in Sugar Land, Texas, was indicted with first-degree murder by a Broward County grand jury three years ago after an autopsy concluded Dowling died from his decades-old injuries. He never crawled, walked, talked or fed himself, his family has said.

She voluntarily entered the Broward County Jail on May 29 after having been free on $100,000 bail since shortly after her indictment.