Man pleads guilty in death of mom, kids

COEUR d’ALENE — A 47-year-old accused of supplying the drugs that may have resulted in the 2016 death of Misty Phelps and her two children pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement to one count of distributing meth.

Charles Clifford Brown pleaded guilty Friday to one count of delivery of a controlled substance, which can carry a life prison term.

Prosecutors have agreed to limit their sentencing recommendation to a fixed four years behind bars.

Brown was indicted earlier this year by a grand jury and charged with two felony counts, delivering meth and oxycodone, to Phelps sometime between October 2016 and Phelps’ death Nov. 2.

The bodies of Phelps and her two sons, 1-year-old Tristan and 2-year-old Riley Phelps, were found in her 2006 Ford Fusion submerged underwater near the Fernan Lake boat ramp.

Earlier reports showed Phelps had drugs in her system and Brown is said to have sold her methamphetamine and oxycodone, also known as Percocet, according to the indictment.

Brown stood silent at his arraignment in April, prompting First District Judge Richard Christensen to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Emergency crews pulled the car containing Phelps, 25, and her two children from the water Nov. 3 not long after the submerged Fusion was located before 11 a.m. by a fisherman. Autopsy reports indicated drowning as the cause of death of all three, but toxicology reports showed Phelps had drugs in her system.

According to reports at the time, friends said they worried for Phelps, whom they said had been acting strangely and was rapidly losing weight. They thought she might be doing drugs.

Investigators said Brown had failed a polygraph, and that Brown lied about his involvement in Phelps’ death.

The recent plea agreement, which dropped the second charge against Brown, vacated Brown’s trial this month. It calls for a unified 15-year sentence, which means Brown, after spending a mandatory four years in prison, could serve 11 additional years behind bars at the discretion of the Idaho Department of Correction.

Sentencing is set at 8 a.m. Oct. 19, in Coeur d’Alene.