A Waycross woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in the case of an 18-month-old boy who was found in a vacant lot nearly a mile from his family’s home in Fairfield Plantation. She was sentenced to three years of probation and time served for the eight months she spent in solitary confinement.

Assistant District Attorney Anne Allen said Tina Marie Camacaro, 52, pleaded guilty to interference with custody, reckless conduct and second-degree cruelty to children in Carroll County Superior Court before Judge John Simpson.

The trial was set to be tried Aug. 8 but had been rescheduled for the week of Nov. 14.

“The reason it was taken off the last calendar is because we had [conducted] the Jackson versus Denno hearing,” Allen said. “It’s a motion to suppress the defendant’s confession. After the hearing, Judge Simpson granted the defendant’s motion to suppress her confession so [Camacaro’s lawyer] Mr. [Brian] Tevis and I negotiated,m because I was going to file a notice to appeal it through the Court of Appeals. But in lieu of it going up on appeal, she ended up pleading today.”

Camacaro is also banished from Carroll and Cobb counties except for the purpose of attending legal proceedings.

Tevis said his client was offered time served on the misdemeanor charges and three years’ probation on the cruelty to children charge.

“We were always confident that the truth would prevail,” he said. “Through our investigation, we knew the facts weren’t as they had been portrayed in the news and that authorities had illegally interrogated Ms. Camacaro, clearly violating her rights under the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions. Ultimately, the court agreed, and the state made a probation offer to a lesser charge. Tina and her family decided to accept that in order to put all of this behind her. We are extremely pleased with the outcome.”

According to the order granting the defendant’s motion to suppress statements that was filed on Aug. 22, the court found Camacaro “unequivocally and unambiguously asserted her Fifth Amendment Right to Counsel by stating to the officer, ‘Obviously, I need representation.’”

“At that point, the interrogation should have immediately ceased, any thus, and statements made after that statement are hereby suppressed,” the document reads.

Court documents showed that Simpson had set a $40,000 bond for Camacaro on Aug. 12. She was initially charged with felony kidnapping for allegedly abducting the child from his Magnolia Drive home on Jan. 31. Authorities were unsure of why the child was taken, but the child’s mother is the girlfriend of the suspect’s estranged husband.

Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley said the 911 center received a call about 3 a.m. on Jan. 31 that there was a boy missing from the residence. He was reported missing by his mother, Brenda Avilez, and her boyfriend, Danny Camacaro.

Langley said the child was sick, so the couple and Avilez’s 3-year-old son left the home to get over-the-counter medicine from a convenience store about 2:30 a.m.

The boy was left with Danny Camacaro’s 17-year-old daughter who was sleeping downstairs. When they returned to the home, the child was gone. Investigators immediately started a search and used the reverse 911 emergency notification system to notify residents of the missing child.

Deputies arrested Tina Camacaro shortly after a resident on North Court found the uninjured toddler about 8:40 that morning. She was found at a residence in the Villa Rica area. The boy was taken to Tanner Medical Center where he was treated and released.