Cox changed her plea to guilty before her trial, which was scheduled to begin Dec. 8.
Judge Winston Kidd sentenced Cox, who was fighting tears, to 40 years for murder and 25 years for kidnapping. The sentences will run concurrently.
She and
Daniel Callihan were arrested in 2024 after Erin Brunett and her sister were kidnapped from Louisiana after
their mother was murdered. Cox told Kidd that she didn't know Callihan did not have permission to take the children from Louisiana to Mississippi.
"I wanted to get away, but I couldn't," Cox said. "If I could change it all, I would. But I can't."