A 28-year-old mother in west-central Nebraska has been given 18 to 20 years in prison for killing her 3-year-old daughter.

Lexington radio station KRVN reports that Doris Herrin, of Gothenburg, was sentenced on Friday. She was convicted in August of manslaughter.

Prosecutors say 3-year-old Misty Herrin was unresponsive when she arrived at a Gothenburg hospital on Dec. 21, 2010. She was flown to a Kearney hospital, where she underwent surgery brain surgery. She died the next day.

Doris Herrin had told doctors the girl fell, but evidence showed the little girl had been hit in the head several times and shaken.