Stepmom Pleads Guilty in Montana Kids’ Abduction

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The stepmother of three children taken by their father to the Bahamas on a sailboat against custody orders has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in Montana under an agreement with prosecutors.

Court officials said 45-year-old Angela Bryant pleaded guilty Wednesday in Gallatin County to parenting interference by accountability.

The plea deal calls for her to spend 180 days in jail and pay court costs. Sentencing is scheduled for July 9.

The children were supposed to be returned to their mother in Montana last September under a custody plan. They were missing for more than seven months before authorities found them on the sailboat off the Florida coast.

Their father, James Ray Bryant, pleaded guilty this month in a deal that calls for him to spend four years in prison.