A snowboarder facing a misdemeanor for the 2005 death of a skier at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort plans to plead guilty to the homicide charge, lawyers revealed in court Friday.

Greg Doda, 18, will plead guilty to criminally negligent homicide instead of proceeding with a trial set to begin next month, according to defense attorney Robert Horn and County Attorney Steve Weichman.

The attorneys appeared before Jackson’s 9th Circuit Judge Timothy C. Day for a status review hearing to discuss the case. Horn said the decision came after “extensive discussions” with Weichman, and the defense attorney will file a guilty plea with the court in the coming weeks.

Doda, of Crownsville, Md. crashed into Heather Donahue, 29, while riding a snowboard down Laramie Bowl on Feb. 24, 2005, according to charging documents filed by Weichman. The Shrewsbury, Mass., woman suffered serious injuries that resulted in her death the day after the collision.

Criminally negligent homicide carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Doda, who was 16 at the time of the crash, has avoided appearing in Circuit Court due to a waiver filed by his attorney. But Weichman and Horn said they plan to have Doda, who graduated high school this year, and his family appear in court for sentencing.

“I think what is going to be extensive in this case is the sentencing hearing,” Horn told the judge.

Weichman said an issue he and Horn are “still working through is whether the state will make a (sentencing) recommendation or not.”

Weichman filed the charge almost a year after the crash, based on a probe by Teton County Sheriff’s Investigator Mike Carlson. The investigation involved dozens of interviews, witness statements, a crash analysis and review of video of the collision.

Doda allegedly rode his snowboard in a manner that was a “gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise,” according to the charge.

Doda allegedly “failed to perceive the substantial and unjustifiable risk that his determination to ride his snowboard straight down Laramie Bowl could and in fact did result in a deadly collision,” the charge states.

In an interview with sheriff’s investigators at Teton Village Clinic after the collision, Doda said he rode his snowboard at a fast speed but “was not out of control” while coming down Laramie Bowl, according to court documents.

“Doda said he felt like he did not have any way of avoiding the collision between him and Donahue,” states Carlson’s affidavit of probable cause.

Witness statements summarized in Carlson’s affidavit described Doda traveling down Laramie Bowl at anywhere between 35 and 60 mph when he crashed into Donahue.

The collision at the lower area of Laramie Bowl broke Doda’s snowboard into two pieces. “The impact knocked Donahue out of her gloves, skis, poles, hat goggles, neck warmer and catapulted her about 25 feet down the hill,” Carlson wrote based on an interview with Donahue’s husband, who witnessed the crash.

Other than the August trial date, no other dates have been set for Doda’s  plea, or sentencing hearings.