Sitter Pleads Guilty in Baby’s Death to Spare Daughter From Testifying : Crime: The woman will face a sentence of 15 years to life in prison for fatally shaking the 18-month-old girl.

Averting a trial in which her own daughter would have been a witness against her, a Van Nuys baby-sitter pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering an 18-month-old girl under her care.

Nova Marcia Thompson, 35, sobbed quietly as she pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the June 9, 1989, death of Jasmine Lynn Sanders, who lapsed into a coma after being violently shaken and scalded with water.

In exchange for Thompson’s plea, prosecutors dropped one count each of felony child abuse and corporal infliction of injury stemming from a severe burn on Jasmine’s foot and bruises on her face, head and torso.

Had Thompson gone to trial and been convicted by a jury of those counts and of first-degree murder, she would have faced a prison sentence of 25 years to life, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Fisch. Instead, Thompson will receive a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, Fisch said.

Thompson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Andrea Gilliam, said her client pleaded guilty to the charge because “her young daughter was going to be the main witness against her and she didn’t want her to have to testify” again. The daughter had testified during a preliminary hearing.

Fisch agreed that “it would be pretty traumatic to put a 5-year-old on the stand to testify against her mother and traumatic for the victim’s father to have to relive all this again.”

Jasmine’s father, William Manciano, a 26-year-old rock musician, dropped Jasmine off on June 7 for an overnight stay with Thompson, who had been caring for the child almost daily for a year, Fisch said.

Thompson’s daughter, Carlaina Johnson, 5, testified at her mother’s preliminary hearing in August, 1989, that her mother became angry at dinner because Jasmine “wouldn’t chew her lambie.” Thompson began shaking Jasmine, Carlaina said, and then put her in a sink filled with steaming water.

After several minutes, Thompson took the crying baby out of the scalding water and hurled her into the bathtub, on which Jasmine struck her head, Carlaina said.

The next morning, Thompson called Manciano to say his daughter had stopped breathing. The child was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital but never regained consciousness. She died June 9 after life support systems were disconnected, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled that the shaking caused Jasmine’s death.

Thompson, who has three daughters of her own, including one born while in custody, baby-sat several children in her unlicensed home. No charges have been filed in connection with other children.

But parents of two other children under Thompson’s care were expected to testify at the trial that the baby-sitter made one child eat her own fecal matter and another child sit for hours in a bathtub filled with water as punishment for toilet-training accidents, Fisch said.

Thompson has been jailed in lieu of $400,000 bail since the little girl’s death. Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann set sentencing for Nov. 8.