Utah woman accused of killing her newborns and storing them in garage set to take plea deal

SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah woman accused of killing six of her newborn babies and storing their bodies in her garage appears set to take a plea deal.

Prosecutors and attorneys for Megan Huntsman have reached a resolution and requested a special setting for a hearing Thursday morning in Provo, Utah, online court records show. The attorneys said last month they were negotiating a plea deal.

Deputy Utah County Attorney's Tim Taylor said Huntsman will probably take the plea deal unless there is a final-hour snag, but he declined to reveal details of the agreement. Huntsman's attorney Andy Howell could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Huntsman, 39, has not entered a plea to the six counts of murder she is facing.

The tiny bodies of seven babies were found by her estranged husband in April 2014 while he cleaned out a garage in the home they had shared in Pleasant Grove, Utah, a city of about 35,000 south of Salt Lake City. Authorities say a seventh baby found in her garage was stillborn.

The grisly discovery sent shockwaves through the quiet, mostly Mormon community.

Huntsman told police she either strangled or suffocated the babies immediately after they were born. She wrapped their bodies in a towel or a shirt, put them in plastic bags and then packed them inside boxes in the garage.

Police say Huntsman killed the babies over a 10-year period from 1996 to 2006, during a period of her life when she told investigators she was addicted to methamphetamine and didn't want to care for the babies.

DNA results have revealed that all seven newborns were full term and that her now-estranged husband, Darren West, was the biological father of the infants. West lived with her during the decade the babies were killed, but he is not considered a suspect in their deaths.

West discovered the bodies shortly after he was released from federal prison where he spent more than eight years after pleading guilty to meth charges.

In her few brief court appearances, Huntsman has said very little.

The day the babies were found, Huntsman told police that were eight or nine dead babies in her home, search warrant affidavit show. But police later concluded Huntsman was confused and was taking a ballpark guess.