Mother pleads guilty on 2 counts

Sha'Dale Wright, 1, and AuZua Wright, 3, died of smoke inhalation.
WARREN -- The mother of two young girls who died in a Nov. 16 house fire in Leavittsburg has pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment and two counts of negligent homicide.
De'It Dunkerton, 28, of 862 Union St. S.W., entered the plea to an amended indictment Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
David Toepfer, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the charges stem from Dunkerton's being asleep in a bedroom when one of the girls apparently started the fire with a lighter.
Dunkerton will be sentenced in six to eight weeks after a presentence investigation. She faces up to six months in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000 on each of the counts. All of the convictions are first-degree misdemeanors.
Girls' deaths
Dunkerton and Shawn Price of Warren were in the house together Nov. 16, 2005, when a fire broke out in a bedroom at 823 McConnell Road. It killed Sha'Dale Wright, 1, and AuZua Wright, 3.
Price said he awoke in the bedroom to the 10 a.m. fire, which quickly spread throughout the house. Price told reporters at the time that the girls fled to a bathroom area where Dunkerton could not reach them. Dunkerton was treated at a Cleveland hospital for burns she suffered in the fire.
The Trumbull County coroner's office ruled the girls' deaths accidental and listed the cause of the deaths as smoke inhalation.
Price was never charged in the case. Dunkerton was indicted on third-degree felony child endangerment charges, which were reduced in her plea agreement to misdemeanors.