FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Lionel Tate pleaded guilty Wednesday to the armed robbery of a pizza deliveryman last year, which could net him up to 30 years in prison but spare him a possible life sentence for violating probation in the 1999 killing of a 6-year-old girl.

Tate, 19, said "Yes, sir" when asked if he would plead guilty to the robbery by Broward County Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus, who scheduled sentencing for April 3. Tate could receive between 10 and 30 years in prison, Lazarus said.

"It's up to him if he wanted to accept a plea and avoid the possibility of spending the rest of his life in jail, but nevertheless, be exposed to substantial prison time," assistant state attorney Chuck Morton said.

Tate also admitted that he had violated probation by possessing a gun during the May 23, 2005, robbery. Lazarus said that any sentence he imposes for those violations would run concurrently with the robbery sentence.

His mother, Kathleen Grosset-Tate, said her son made a difficult choice in accepting a plea deal.

"If you had a choice to say yes, you did it and get a lighter sentence than for them to go through (trial) and still say you did it, and you didn't do it, what would you do?" she asked reporters outside the courtroom.

But defense attorney Ellis Rubin said the evidence against Tate was overwhelming.

"What happened in open court was the truth," Rubin said. "And the judge asked him, 'Are you pleading guilty because you're guilty,' and (Tate) said 'yes.'"

The guilty plea is the latest saga in the long-running case of Tate, who was convicted of killing Tiffany Eunick when he was only 12. He was the youngest person in modern U.S. history to receive a life sentence.

Tate said he was practicing wrestling moves he saw on TV and didn't mean to hurt Eunick.

The conviction and sentence were overturned on appeal. Tate then pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received probation.

Last May, Tate called Domino's Pizza from a friend's apartment and ordered four pizzas. A friend later told police that Tate, armed with a revolver, hid behind the apartment door when deliveryman Walter Gallardo arrived with the order.

When Gallardo saw the gun, he dropped the pizzas and ran. Gallardo has positively identified Tate as the perpetrator and Tate's fingerprints were found on the pizza boxes.