A mother accused of killing her 7-year-old daughter pleaded guilty Monday to charges of child abuse negligently resulting in death, theft between $100,000 and $1 million and charitable fraud.

Kelly Turner was scheduled to go to trial in early February in Douglas County District Court. Judge Patricia Herron on Monday called the plea a “somewhat last-minute turn of events.”

Turner’s daughter Olivia Gant died in hospice care on Aug. 20, 2017, after five years of treatment at Children’s Hospital Colorado for illnesses prosecutors say her mother created for attention and financial gain.

Turner was indicted in October 2019 on 13 charges including first-degree murder, child abuse, theft, charitable fraud, forgery and attempted influence of a public servant after authorities said she faked her daughter’s illnesses for years.

Turner claimed Olivia died of intestinal failure, but an autopsy found no evidence of intestinal disease. The cause of death was “undetermined.” Gant’s body was exhumed for the autopsy as part of the investigation into her death.

Turner began to cry during Monday’s hearing when Herron asked her to confirm her plea for the top charge, child abuse.

Authorities didn’t start looking into Turner’s involvement in her child’s death until 2018. That’s when Turner started seeking care for another daughter, claiming the child was suffering from “bone pain” from cancer. When doctors looked into those complaints, they found no indication of cancer.

Prosecutor Christopher Gallo, the 18th Judicial District’s chief deputy district attorney, said the case stands out in his decades of prosecuting child abuse cases because even from tens of thousands of pages of medical documents and dozens of interviews, it’s unclear precisely at what point Gant suffered the treatment or injury that resulted in her death.

That complicates any theory prosecutors might have presented at trial.

“This situation is unfortunately not an anomaly, but it is relatively singular compared to the ‘normal’ — and I even cringe at using the word ‘normal’ — types of cases that oftentimes will appear in this court,” he said.

Typically prosecutors can at least point to “a discrete moment in time that thing happened,” he added.

Turner’s surviving daughter is now a young teenager and lives with her grandparents.

The 19-page grand jury indictment revealed that several of Gant’s doctors who were interviewed at Children’s Hospital Colorado felt that though Olivia was being treated for medical conditions, “Olivia was not a terminal patient.”

Months before Olivia died, Turner helped her make a “bucket list” of things she wanted to do. According to the indictment, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, under the assumption that Olivia was dying, gave the child a “Bat Princess” party. A GoFundMe set up by Turner brought in more than $22,000.

Turner is also accused of defrauding Medicaid of thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical care.