ELDON SMITH - 4 yo - Portland OR

Portland OR ---- A woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing her
4-year-old son and trying to kill her 7-year-old daughter after the
children plunged off a bridge into a frigid Oregon river last year.
Under terms of the plea bargain, Amanda Stott-Smith,
32, will avoid the possibility of the death penalty and spend at least
35 years in prison.
Stott-Smith gave one-word answers to questions from the
judge and showed little emotion during the hearing.
The father of the children, Jason Smith, was in the
courtroom but made no comment. Prosecutor John Casalino said Jason Smith
had approved of the plea arrangement.
Formal sentencing is scheduled for April 22.
Stott-Smith is expected to be sentenced to life in prison for aggravated
murder and a minimum of 10 years for attempted aggravated murder.She must serve at least 30 years of the life sentence and, after
that, at least five more years on the attempted murder count, according
to the agreement. After that, she would be permitted to apply for
release.
The children fell 75 feet from the Sellwood Bridge into
the Willamette River shortly after midnight on May 23, plunging into
waters fresh with mountain snow melt.
A couple from one of the two-story floating houses
along the river heard cries and fetched the two children into a boat,
but the boy was dead. The children had spent more than half an hour in
the river at that point.
Investigators have not said in detail what they believe
happened on the bridge, and the proceedings Tuesday shed no light on
that question.
"I intentionally caused the death of Eldon Smith ...,"
said a handwritten passage in the agreement Stott-Smith signed. She also
admitted to trying to kill her daughter.
Stott-Smith and Jason Smith separated in 2008, and the
father moved to Eugene. In April 2009, Jason Smith was granted custody
of the children. On the night that the boy died, Stott-Smith had them as
part of her visitation rights.
Court documents showed she made a distraught phone call
to him shortly before the children went into the water, saying, "You've
taken my joy away," and "Why have you done this to me?"
Later that morning, police officers tracked her cell
phone signals to a downtown Portland parking garage, where an officer
grabbed her by the wrists to keep her from leaping from the ninth floor.
The girl has recovered and lives with her father.

Her sentencing will be April 22.

Stott-Smith, wearing her long, brown hair down and dressed in a black sweater
over a blue shirt with black slacks and heels, sat between her two attorneys,
Kenneth Hadley Jr. and Deborah Burdzik.

Sheriff's deputies kept a chain
around her ankles and waist, but her appearance was in stark contrast to her
previous court appearances, when she wore either blue jail garb or a green
suicide protective vest.

She looked behind her before the hearing began,
apparently to see who was attending.

Jason Smith, who has had no contact with Stott-Smith since the event, walked
into the courtroom with the prosecutor. He was accompanied by his lawyer, Laura
Schantz, and sat in the front row.

"I think he's doing it for the sake
of his son, Eldon, and daughter," Schantz said.

The judge noted that
Stott-Smith is on a medication called Abilify, commonly prescribed for
depression, and asked if she clearly understood the plea deal. "Yes," she
replied.
Stott-Smith wore a blank expression throughout most of the hearing. She
briefly closed her eyes as the judge explained that she was pleading guilty to
having intentionally caused the death of her son and intentionally attempting to
cause the death of her daughter.

Casalino said the children's father, who
did not speak during or after the hearing, supported the sentence.


Around 1 a.m. May 23, about six hours after she picked up the children
for her weekend visit, Stott-Smith, distraught and crying, called Jason Smith
and told him, "Help me, help me. ... You've taken my joy away. ... Don't have my
kids anymore. Why have you done this to me?"

Jason Smith, according to
court documents, told police he kept asking, "Are the kids OK? Where are the
kids?"

The first calls to 9-1-1 reporting screams near the Sellwood
Bridge came in about 1:20 a.m. Several residents were drawn outside, having
heard a splash, then screams and moans from the river.

David Haag and
his companion, Cheryl Robb, who lived in a floating home northwest of the
bridge, got in their boat and maneuvered close to the children. They found the
girl, her head and one leg out of the water, gasping for air.

Haag then
noticed the boy, dived in and pulled the children from the water. He and Robb
took them to the Oregon Yacht Club dock, where Sgt. Peter Simpson performed CPR
on Eldon. It was too late to save him, but the girl was helped by paramedics.


Jason Smith called Tualatin police at 2:49 a.m., worried about the
children's welfare. Meanwhile, Portland police began tracking Stott-Smith by
following her cell phone signal. They found her on the ninth floor of a downtown
parking garage, where an officer grabbed her as she tried to jump about 10:25
a.m.
The previous summer, Stott-Smith's family had raised concerns in court about
her ability to care for her children because of alcohol abuse, and her mother,
grandmother and brother-in-law took the awkward step of testifying against
her.

Schantz said Tuesday that Smith's daughter is doing "fantastic." She
lives with her dad in Eugene. She has received counseling and continues to take
swimming lessons, a skill that saved her life.

"You'd think she'd be
afraid, but she's not. She loves to swim," Schantz said.

Other relatives
on Stott-Smith's side of the family, as well as Portland homicide Detectives
Michele Michaels and Bryan Steed, who handled the case, also attended the
hearing.
The plea deal came after four settlement hearings. With it, Stott-Smith
avoided a potential death sentence or true life in prison sentence were the case
to go to trial. If she had pleaded guilty except for insanity, she would have
been under the supervision of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board, and
the board would have determined when she might have been released or returned to
the community.

An Oregon state review shows child welfare workers received 10
reports of suspected abuse involving Amanda
Stott-Smith in the nine years before she dumped her two young
children off a Portland bridge in May 2009, killing her young son.

However the state says it did not find enough evidence to take the
children out of the home.
The state report released Thursday offers new details about reports
alleging domestic violence, child abuse or neglect starting in June
2000. Several reports involved an older son.
In a plea bargain last month, 32-year-old Stott-Smith pleaded guilty
to aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder and was sentenced
to at least 35 years in prison.
Her 4-year-old son Eldon died. Her daughter, now 8, survived.