Woman accused of leaving kids to die to plead guilty

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – A South Dakota woman accused of leaving her two young daughters to die in an unheated car during a frigid winter day on a North Dakota American Indian reservation will plead guilty to the charges against her, according to her lawyer.

Michelle Wounded Face, 25, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota who has been living on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, agreed Friday to plead guilty to two counts each of child abuse and neglect. She could get up to 10 years in prison at her Sept. 2 sentencing hearing, but prosecutors agreed to recommend less than the maximum punishment “for (her) acceptance of responsibility,” the plea agreement states.

Wounded Face chose to enter into the plea deal rather than take the case to trial, Federal Public Defender Neil Fulton told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He declined to give specifics, citing attorney-client privilege.

“She decided that was in her best interest,” he said.

Wounded Face is accused of abandoning her 2- and 4-year-old daughters in a car in a rural area for more than three hours on Jan. 3, in bitter cold. They survived, despite not being adequately clothed. One was wearing only jeans and a tank top and the other only jeans, according to authorities. Neither had a coat, shoes or socks.

“The temperature was somewhere between (minus) 5 and 7 degrees, with a wind chill warning in effect,” the plea deal states.

Wounded Face told an FBI agent that she had left the children in the car to die, and authorities said she exhibited odd behavior, including drinking toilet water in jail and claiming to be the daughter of gods. She had planned to rely on an insanity defense but U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in mid-May ruled she was competent to stand trial, after she underwent a mental health examination at a Federal Bureau of Prisons medical center in Texas. A three-day trial had been scheduled to begin July 13.

Authorities do not believe that Wounded Face's strange behavior was a ploy to avoid accepting responsibility, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Holmes said in an interview. Drugs might have played a role, she said.

“Obviously it was just very strange circumstances,” she said.

Fulton said “there are significant psychological issues at play in the case.”

“The legal standard for competence is that you understand the proceedings and have the ability to assist your lawyer in your representation,” he said. “That is not to say that you are without mental health issues.”

The plea agreement stipulates that Wounded Face “fully understands the nature and elements of the crimes with which (she) has been charged.” A pre-sentence investigation will be conducted, and the final sentence will be up to Hovland.

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