A California City man accused of beating his girlfriend’s two-year-old son to death has pleaded no contest to first-degree murder.

Mathew Berry boarded a bus with little Pharaoh Van Vector in 2013 then told the driver the child wasn’t breathing. He later told investigators the boy was injured in an off-roading accident, but the motive for the killing has not been released.

Sentencing is next month.

Kelli Pierce