SANDPOINT — A former Bonner County woman pleaded guilty Friday to felony injury to a child who was exposed to methamphetamine and found dead.

Samantha Loraine Randel’s sentencing hearing is pending in 1st District Court.

Randel, a 26-year-old who now lives in Wallace, was charged with the felony after her 3-month-old son was found unresponsive in the bed that she shared with the child’s father on April 5, 2015. Randel told sheriff’s investigators that she put the child to sleep face-up in a breastfeeding pillow that was placed between her and the father.

When Randel awoke the following morning, the child was face down on the mattress and unresponsive. Attempts to revive him at the Spirit Lake area home were unsuccessful and the boy was pronounced dead at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene.

An autopsy conducted by the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office. A toxicology analysis detected 36 nanograms of meth per milliliter of blood, according to court documents.

Randel was confronted about the presence of drugs in her system and she allegedly admitted smoking meth before, during and after her pregnancy, a probable cause affidavit said.

The autopsy, however, did not directly indicate a cause of death, prompting investigators to consult with a Boise child abuse pediatrician. The doctor concluded that any level of meth could result in great bodily harm, although the level found in the infant’s blood could not be proven to be lethal.

Moreover, living conditions in the Sierra Lane home were described as squalid. The single-wide trailer, in which five people resided, had no working bathroom or refrigerator.

A criminal complaint alleges Randel placed her son in harm’s way. Investigators believe Randel breastfed while using meth, court documents indicate.

Randel was scheduled to stand trial next month, but entered into a plea agreement to resolve the case.

Randel faces up to 10 years in prison, but the state has agreed to concur with the recommendation of an Idaho Department of Correction presentence investigator. The state has also agreed not to exceed retained jurisdiction in the case, according to a pretrial settlement agreement.

When jurisdiction is retained, a defendant serves up to a year in prison before a decision is made whether to place the person on probation or make them serve and underlying prison term, which in Randel’s case would be a two- to five-year term.