BENTON (AP) — A southern Illinois woman faces up to a decade in federal prison now that she has admitted stealing more than $85,000 in Social Security benefits after her mother died.

Fifty-one-year-old Mary Barnett-Johnson of Mount Vernon pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to one count of theft of government funds.

A grand jury indicted her in December in East St. Louis, alleging that after her mother's 2003 death Barnett-Johnson fraudulently continued to receive and use the dead woman's Social Security benefits.