SC daycare operator pleads guilty in infant death

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The operator of a South Carolina daycare center has pleaded guilty in the death of an infant left in a hot van two years ago.

Multiple media outlets reported that 65-year-old Willie Ritter pleaded guilty in Columbia on Monday to homicide by child abuse.

Circuit Judge Paul Birch will sentence the retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Sept. 21. Ritter could be sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Prosecutor Vanessa Shipley says Ritter had picked up 9-month-old Javon Simpson on May 18, 2007. She says Ritter forgot the boy when he unloaded children at the W.E. Ritter Child Development Center.

The boy was found nearly seven hours later and was taken to a Columbia hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Department of Social Services has suspended Ritter’s license to operate a daycare center.