A Louisiana mother pleaded guilty to killing her 17-month-old son by injecting hand sanitizer into his feeding tube, the Plaquemines Parish District Attorney's Office tells PEOPLE.
Lucas Ruiz was born with Down syndrome and an atrioventricular canal defect. He had surgery to repair the defect at a young age, but it required him to be fed through a feeding tube. He died in January 2014 after being poisoned with a lethal dose of hand sanitizer.
His mother, Erika Wigstrom, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge just two months later, as well as an attempted murder charge for trying to kill Lucas in October 2012 by giving him an alcohol-based perfume.
On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Wigstrom previously told detectives that she was only looking to put her son out of his misery, saying that she didn't want him to suffer anymore.
Lucas' father, Cesar Ruiz, was also arrested in connection with his son's death. While in police custody, he reportedly confessed to giving his son rum through his feeding tube in October 2012, according to The Times-Picayune.
But prosecutors later said that he falsely admitted to the crime, and charged him with criminal mischief. He was convicted of that charge and spent a year in jail following his initial arrest.
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