UPDATED: Mother Accused of Withholding Son's Chemotherapy Medication Changes Plea to Guilty

SALEM, MA — A Salem mother convicted of withholding chemotherapy medication from her son will not be returning to prison, after changing her plea to guilty Wednesday on a charge of attempted murder.

Kristen LaBrie, 44, appeared before Salem Superior Court for a change of plea hearing, where Judge James Lang imposed a jointly recommended sentence of time already served, according to Carrie Kimball-Monahan of the Essex County District Attorney's office.

"This case has always been about justice for Jeremy. It was our job to be his voice," District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement. "This sentence is fair, balanced, reasonable, and tempered with mercy."

LaBrie has spent the past five years in prison for withholding at-home chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. The 9-year-old boy died in 2009. She was convicted of attempted murder, assault and battery, and reckless child endangerment in 2011.

According to the District Attorney's office, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital gave Jeremy treatment plan which had an 85-90 percent cure rate for lymphobastic lymphoma in 2006. The district attorney's office said that in 2008, doctors discovered that his cancer had returned in a more aggressive and non-curable form when Jeremy was diagnosed with the flu.

The district attorney's office announced in its release that investigations determined that the defendant had failed to prescriptions and that was the likely reason that the cancer had returned.

"Based on all of the evidence, the only conclusion to be reached is that she wanted him to die," Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall said in a statement.

LaBrie stated that she stopped giving the chemotherapy to her son because the side effects made him extremely ill. She had initially pleaded not guilty in 2009.

In March, the State's Supreme Judicial Court granted the new trial for LaBrie on the attempted murder charge and overturned the assault and battery charge. The court upheld a charge of reckless endangerment of a child and sentenced her to five years probation, which she began serving on April 14.

LaBrie was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison in 2011 but was released this spring while she awaited a new trial.

Alison Bauter, Patch Staff contributed to this report.