BENZIE COUNTY, MI – After years of beatings by her autistic daughter, and frustrated at efforts to get her help, Kelli Stapleton reached her limit when told her daughter could not attend a special-education program at school.

“I am devastated,” she wrote a year ago in her blog.

Then, she told her daughter, Isabelle, then 14, that they were going camping. They would have s’mores. She gave her daughter extra medication to make her sleepy. She put two lit charcoal grills in the minivan once the girl fell asleep.

A sheriff’s deputy found the van after Matt Stapleton reported his wife and daughter missing. He had received a “disconcerting” voicemail from his wife.

An explanation?

“I was going to testify to Kelli being legally insane,” defense-hired forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman told The Grand Rapids Press and MLive.

“Kelli loved her daughter,” Lieberman said. “It was actually out of love that she did this. She wasn’t envisioning it as killing her. She loved her daughter. She still loves her daughter.”

Stapleton, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Sept. 2, to first-degree child abuse in Benzie County Circuit Court. Her trial on an attempted-murder charge was to begin Wednesday before she reached the plea agreement. Both charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison.

Isabelle was in a coma several days after the poisoning, with concerns she suffered brain damage. Her father called her recovery a "miracle" when she came out of the coma. Her mother was treated at a hospital but her injuries were not as severe and she was soon arrested.

Benzie County Prosecuting Attorney Sara Swanson said: “This was an extremely serious incident which could have resulted in the death of an innocent child. A conviction of this felony carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison, and the prison sentence we expect it to carry, is the right resolution for the community, the defendant, and our victim, Isabelle.”

Stapleton reportedly told workers at Munson Medical Center, where she was treated, that years of frustration with her daughter's illness and behavior led her to try to kill her daughter and herself. She was "kind of at her wit's end and thought this would be the best solution for the family, her husband and her other two kids at home, was that if Issy and her went to heaven," state police Detective Rick Sekely said.

A judge earlier found Stapleton competent to stand trial.

Lieberman, a Beverly Hills forensic psychiatrist involved in numerous high-profile cases, including the 1995 shooting death of a guest on The Jenny Jones Show who admitted attraction to an acquaintance, is an author and frequent guest on national talk shows.

She said she spent 20 hours evaluating Stapleton and concluded she was legally insane when she tried to kill her daughter and herself.

She diagnosed Stapleton with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, mood disorder and said she had effects of brain trauma caused by her daughter’s assaults. She said that Stapleton was primarily responsible for care of her daughter, and bore the brunt of her violent outbursts.

“Kelli was living in a war zone,” Lieberman said. “That’s where the diagnosis of PTSD comes from. She was living in a war zone. She was not able to get sufficient help for Issy and the family.”

She said that not all autistic children are violent, but in cases like this, the violence worsens as the child grows up.

“The last two attacks put Kelli in the hospital with traumatic brain injury that included loss of consciousness,” she said.

“Kelli was afraid for her life.”

She read from her 33-page report, which she recently filed with the court.

“To a reasonable degree of certainty, it is my opinion that Kelli Stapleton was legally insane when she committed the act … . As a result of this mental illness, Kelli Stapleton lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the nature, quality and wrongfulness of her conduct and to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law.”

While insanity defenses are rarely successful, Lieberman said Stapleton’s mental health problems explain the unthinkable. Stapleton viewed her actions as a way to help, not harm, her daughter. And, she would be with her, too.

“Issy was diagnosed with autism at 2 and since then Kelli has been living with this for 13 years, struggling to get help for her daughter. It has taken a huge toll on her, doors being shut in her face.”

She had worked to fund her daughter's stay at The Great Lakes Center for Autism Treatment and Research in Portage, but once that ended, she focused on getting her daughter into a special-education program.

Lieberman said the “final straw” came when she could not enroll her daughter in the program.

“There needs to be more help for families with autistic children, especially when children grow up and become assaultive. It’s extremely difficult. There are many families of autistic children who are on the edge,” Lieberman said.

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar