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Porter accepts deal in hit-and-run

The dance teacher could serve up to three years when she is sentenced in October.

Jennifer Porter, the dance teacher accused of leaving the scene of an accident in which two children were killed last year, has agreed to plead guilty to the charge. Under the terms of her plea deal, Porter will receive no more than three years in prison. Porter entered the plea Tuesday morning in Hillsborough Circuit Court. She will be sentenced in October.

"Jennifer is throwing herself on the mercy of this court and the community, and we hope the court, after hearing all the facts, will do what we ask, and that is not to put Jennifer in jail," said Porter's attorney, Barry Cohen.

Porter, of Land O'Lakes, was driving a Toyota Echo that authorities say was involved in a March 31, 2004 accident on 22nd Street that killed Bryant Wilkins, 13, and his 3-year-old brother Durontae Caldwell.

The driver who hit the brothers left the scene of the accident in the University of South Florida area. Porter came forward several days later to say she had been driving a car that had been at the scene.

At the time of the accident, Porter worked as a dance teacher at Muller Elementary School.