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Provo • Plea negotiations are underway for a Pleasant Grove woman accused of killing six of her newborns, attorneys said Monday.

Megan Huntsman, 39, is charged in Provo's 4th District Court with six counts of first-degree felony murder.

She appeared Monday for an arraignment hearing, but did not enter any pleas due to the ongoing negotiations.

"We're not ready to set trial and we're not ready for a plea yet," Deputy Utah County Attorney Jared Perkins said outside of court, adding that Huntsman and her attorneys are discussing an offer made by prosecutors.

Perkins said plea negotiations have been "pretty smooth," but attorneys wanted to give Huntsman more time to consider her options before resolving the case. He declined to give specifics about the proposed resolution.

The Pleasant Grove woman is expected to be back in court Feb. 9.

In December, Huntsman waived her right to a preliminary hearing.

She 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 the seven dead babies 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