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Provo • A Pleasant Grove woman accused of killing six of her newborn children waived her right to a preliminary hearing during a brief court appearance on Monday morning.
Megan Huntsman, 39, is charged in Provo's 4th District Court with six counts of first-degree felony murder.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled on Thursday for the woman, however, that was canceled when she declined to hear the evidence against her.
Asked about the possibility of plea deal, Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman said outside of court, "Usually with a waiver of a preliminary hearing, we're hopefully looking towards some resolution. But it's way too early to tell."
Huntsman will be back in court again on Jan. 26 for an arraignment hearing, where she will enter pleas to the alleged crimes.
At a preliminary hearing, prosecutors present evidence and a judge determines whether there is probable cause to advance the case to trial.
Huntsman is accused of choking or smothering the six infants shortly after birth during the period from Jan. 1, 1996 to Dec. 31, 2006.
The long-kept secret began to unravel in early April, when Huntsman's now-estranged husband, 41-year-old Darren West — who had spent eight years in prison for drug crimes before being released into a Salt Lake City halfway house — was retrieving some of his belongings at their Pleasant Grove home.
Inside the garage, West found the remains of a baby wrapped in plastic bags and a green towel and stuffed into a white box, sealed with electrical tape. Alerted to the grisly discovery, police later found six more infant corpses similarly stored inside other boxes.
Huntsman allegedly told investigators that she had killed six of the infants, while a seventh child was stillborn.
Huntsman will not face the possibility of the death penalty under the near-decade-old murder statute in effect at the time of the crimes. Instead, she faces a maximum penalty for each count of five years to life in prison.
West and Huntsman have three living children together, all daughters, now ages 13 to 20.
Police have said that Huntsman used methamphetamine heavily and that her drug addiction was a motive for her crimes.
Pleasant Grove police Capt. Michael Roberts said in July that Huntsman told authorities she was using meth during the period when she allegedly smothered or strangled the infants and also was drinking during part of that time. The cost of feeding her addiction factored into the killings, Roberts said, adding that Huntsman alluded to a choice she was facing.
"She had to make a decision between the drugs and the babies," Roberts has said.
He also said DNA testing on seven dead babies found stuffed into cardboard boxes confirmed that all of them — five girls and two boys — were fathered by her husband.
Huntsman is being held at the Utah County jail in lieu of $6 million cash-only bail.
Twitter: @jm_miller