The plea avoids trial, and Davis County prosecutors agreed to drop two other charges.

Peck faces a 15-year prison term for each charge at sentencing July 27.

The Logan mother was arrested Aug. 30 when deputies found her and the two girls, both toddlers at the time, parked off a road in South Weber.
Police and prosecutors said Peck had been with the girls in the car for two days, giving them prescription medications that had not been prescribed for either girl. At some point Peck used a box cutter to cut one child’s wrist, although the wound was only superficial, authorities said.

When police approached Peck’s car, she refused to unlock the door and grabbed one of the girls, court papers said. Peck then held the box cutter to her own throat and begged police to shoot her.

Deputies had to break the car windows to rescue the children. When police tried to take the knife, Peck began to slice her own throat, which the children witnessed, court records said.
This was not the first time Peck had administered drugs to her children.
In January 2010, she agreed to a plea in abeyance in a Cache County case where she was charged with administering a substance surreptitiously, assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child, according to court documents. In that case, police said Peck had put the antidepressant drug Trazodone in the children’s bottles.

The plea meant the charge would be erased from her record if she complied with the terms of the plea deal. As part of the agreement, Peck was ordered to participate in counseling through a mental health court program.
When filing this case last fall, prosecutors said they anticipated Peck’s mental health could be an issue.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Todd Utzinger said Peck had been given prescription medications by the jail’s medical staff that have helped her address those problems.
“They’ve actually improved her ability to understand and follow what’s happening,” he said.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)