COEUR d'ALENE - The mother who allegedly abandoned two children in the dark and rain near Interstate 90 and the Idaho-Washington state line is scheduled to plead guilty to a felony charge, her defense attorney said Tuesday.

Shannon M. Duval, 28, of Spokane, was charged in Kootenai County with two counts of felony injury to children stemming from the late October incident.

She is scheduled to plead guilty to a single count in exchange for a recommendation for probation from the Kootenai County prosecutor's office, defense attorney Larry Purviance said.

He said that plea hearing is scheduled for next month. She currently is in custody, he said.

Duval, who also uses the last name Germanton, waived her preliminary hearing in the case and was bound over to 1st District Court. Judge Benjamin Simpson was assigned the case.

According to charging documents, Duval abandoned her 3- and 6-year-old sons.

A construction supervisor at the I-90 interchange project at Beck Road found the boys sitting in a grassy area near the construction about 9 a.m. on Oct. 30.

The boys told investigating authorities that Duval had run out of gas and gone for help, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department said at the time.

The boys said Duval brought them to the spot they were found while it was still dark and raining, the sheriff's department said. Investigators learned that she was given a ride by a Jacklin Seed employee to a gas station on the south side of I-90 at Pleasant View Road between 6:30 and 7:30 that morning.

She told the employee that she had been in an argument with her boyfriend and needed to get to a phone to call for a ride. She ended up being arrested at a home in Spokane Valley that night after getting a ride to that location.

An anonymous person called in her whereabouts. She was taken into custody at that time on an outstanding Washington traffic warrant, but was then extradited to Idaho.