A former Goldendale woman who was briefly a resident of Vancouver has pleaded guilty to drowning her toddler daughter and slashing her teenager with a knife in July 2014.
Jessica Smith, 42, entered the guilty pleas Wednesday in Clatsop County Circuit Court in Astoria, Ore., after two days of negotiations between attorneys, according to the Daily Astorian newspaper.
Smith entered Alford pleas, which means she maintains her innocence but acknowledges that there is enough evidence to be found guilty by a jury, the Astorian reported.
Earlier, a judge had ruled out an insanity defense and said that a videotaped confession could be played at her trial.
Smith and her children had moved to Vancouver in 2014 after she split from her husband, Gregory Smith. She filed for divorce and a restraining order, but failed to receive it, and also challenged his custody rights, according to court documents.
According to The Astorian, in the videotaped confession Smith said she drowned Isabella Smith, 2, in a motel room at a Cannon Beach resort in order to “end her misery.” She also said she attacked Alana Smith, then 13, with a razor blade, inflicting wounds to her neck and wrists that were described as critical.
She then fled the motel and avoided capture for three days.
Smith could have faced the death penalty. But in return for her guilty pleas to aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, prosecutors agreed to ask for a sentence of life in prison, with no chance of release for 40 years. She will be sentenced next week at a hearing at which her ex-husband and surviving daughter will be invited to speak.
