After his girlfriend's badly beaten 17-month-old daughter, Kannah Dew, died after being taken to a hospital on Feb. 24, 2015, Gary A. Foley Jr. told police she had choked on a hot dog.

On Friday, Foley, 33, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder before Northampton County President Judge Stephen G. Baratta.Foley, whose trial had been scheduled for July 10, remains in prison without bail pending sentencing on Aug. 11.Foley had been charged by Lehigh Township police on Aug. 1, 2014 with criminal homicide and four counts of endangering the welfare of children.Kannah Dew's mother, Heather M. Surget, 28, on Sept. 23 pleaded guilty before Barratta to four of five counts of child endangerment charges after agreeing to testify against Foley.She was sentenced to time served to five years, followed by five years of probation.Prosecutors on July said they would not seek the death penalty against Foley.At his hearing Friday, Foley was represented by a court appointed private attorney, Matthew J. Deschler of Bethlehem.Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Tatum R. Wilson prosecuted the case.Hannah Dew lived in a filthy, dilapidated, bug-infested trailer on Duke Street in Walnutport without running water and only space heaters for warmth, with her mother, her 3-year-old and 2-month-old sisters, and Foley and his 4-year-old son.Foley, who had been left in charge of the children after Surget went to work at a fast food restaurant, called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. that day.Hannah Dew was taken to Blue Mountain Health System Palmerton Campus, where she died about an hour later of a fractured skull, cerebral hemorrhage and blunt force trauma, an autopsy revealed.About a week before Kannah was killed, Surget asked Foley, whom she had met online, to move in with her.On Feb. 24, 2015, Surget left for work between 4 and 5 p.m., leaving Foley in charge of Kannah and three other children - his own 4-year-old son, and Surget's 3-year-old and 2-month-old daughters.When Foley called 911 at about 7:30 p.m., he told dispatchers he had fed Kannah a piece of hot dog, then put her on the floor to change her diaper and she choked, according to court documents."There's something wrong with my baby," he told the dispatcher, adding there was "foamy stuff" coming from her nose.