``It's just unacceptable,'' said Barry Cohen, the lawyer for Jennifer Porter. ``It's just not a prison case.''

Cohen said he had asked prosecutors whether the case could be resolved without prison time. He heard about the three-year offer from the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office on Friday afternoon and relayed the information to Porter. Together, he said, they decided to decline. The decision, Cohen said, was not difficult.

Cohen said Porter, 29, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and he has 11 witnesses who saw a white van strike the children first, throwing them into his client's windshield.

Immediately after the March 31, 2004, accident, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said they had witnesses who saw a white van and a small car, possibly a Honda, strike the children.

Porter, who drove a Toyota Echo, came forward five days later. Physical evidence on her car linked her to the accident, court records show.

Deputies eventually said the white van was not involved and the case is closed.

Cohen contends the sheriff's office investigation was halted prematurely.

Porter faces one charge of leaving the scene of an accident that involved death, a second-level felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The trial is scheduled for Oct. 31.

Pam Bondi, spokeswoman for the state attorney's office, said she could not comment on any plea offer.

Mike Benito, a former Hillsborough prosecutor now in private practice, said a score sheet provides sentencing guidelines. Porter's ``score'' would be mitigated by her lack of previous arrests and the circumstances of the case.

``I don't know where exactly she falls on the guideline scale,'' Benito said. ``If she pleads guilty and she scores out to prison, the judge has to give her prison.''

Bondi confirmed that the minimum sentence in the statute would include 21 months in prison.

Benito also said Cohen might have a tougher time at trial than he thinks. Porter, he said, is not charged with killing the children; she is charged with leaving the scene.

``The law requires that she stay there,'' Benito said. ``That's all [prosecutors] have to prove; she left the scene of an accident.''

Bryant Wilkins, 13, his brother Durontae Caldwell, 3, and their two siblings were hit as they crossed North 22nd Street after watching a basketball game at a county park adjacent to the University Area Community Center.

Bryant and Durontae died.

At a news conference last year, Cohen said fear prevented his client from stopping after the children were struck.

On Tuesday afternoon, the state attorney's office released transcripts of a recent interview between sheriff's investigators and the children's mother.

Malissa Wilkins told them she met with Porter earlier this year.

Wilkins said she, her pastor and her lawyer met with Cohen and Porter for about an hour.

``I felt it was time for me to meet with her to ask why, you know, why did she do it like that,'' Wilkins told investigators.

The transcript says Wilkins asked both lawyers to leave the room so she and Porter could talk alone. She asked her pastor to stay as a witness to the conversation, the transcript says.

``She was tearful,'' Wilkins said. ``She did a lot of crying, basically.''

Porter told Wilkins that her mind went blank and she couldn't remember the accident. She also said she wasn't the first car to strike the children; a van struck them first.

Porter told Wilkins she wanted to call authorities that night, but her parents told her not to.

Wilkins said she left the meeting with no more answers than she had before.

``I'm still asking what, why?'' she told the investigators. ``I just don't know.''

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698.