PENNSYLVANIA Woman found guilty of assault in beating of girl

The defendant blamed her housemate for the girl's death.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A woman pleaded no contest to charges that she beat her adopted daughter who died of a heart attack in May.
Linda Iarussi, 35, of Millcreek Township, pleaded no contest Thursday to aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child in the alleged beating of Brittany Legler, a mentally disabled 14-year-old who died of a heart attack May 9 after she collapsed. A judge found her guilty.
In exchange for her plea, Erie County prosecutors dropped charges of recklessly endangering another person. Iarussi faces 131/2 to 27 years in prison when she is sentenced Dec. 30. She remained in the Erie County Jail with bond set at $250,000.
Iarussi has blamed her former housemate, Linda Fisher, who also faces charges, and a bicycle accident for the 200 bruises and scarred head, lip and ear that the Erie County coroner found during the girl's autopsy. She claimed Fisher suffocated Brittany during a wrestling match.
Iarussi said she used physical discipline but never hit the girl with a fist. Iarussi said the girl bruised easily because she was anemic.
Coroner's ruling
Coroner Lyell Cook ruled that stress about physical abuse the girl had suffered contributed to her death.
Brittany had a congenital heart defect, which contributed to the heart attack, but Cook said she wouldn't have died were it not for stress brought on by the alleged physical abuse.
Fisher has denied beating the girl. She told authorities that Iarussi beat her and Brittany with a hairbrush and forced them to wrestle just before the girl died.
Millcreek Township school officials had made numerous reports of suspected abuse to police, according to prosecutors, school officials and court documents.