FAYETTEVILLE -- Antoinette Davis, the mother of Shaniya Davis, has entered an Alford plea to Cumberland County Superior Court on charges including second-degree murder. An Alford plea does not admit guilt but concedes that there is enough evidence for a conviction.

5-year-old Shaniya Davis was reported missing in November of 2009, before being found near the Lee-Harnett County line. An autopsy showed that Shaniya died from being suffocated, but not before she was sexually assaulted. Police say Antoinette Davis sold her daughter to Mario McNeill to settle a $200 drug debt.

Davis made an emotional statement in court, "I never said I was a perfect mother, but I was a good mother. I did what I had to do to provide for them. I did what I had to, to make sure they were alright. Because I didn't have any help, from anybody."

Davis will spend at least 17 years behind bars. In May, Mario McNeill was sentenced to death, he was convicted of kidnapping, assaulting, and killing Shaniya.