Day-Care Provider Pleads No Contest in Drug Find

A Reseda woman who operated a day-care center in her home where police found an eight-foot marijuana plant and a loaded gun within the reach of children has pleaded no contest to drug and child endangerment charges, authorities said Thursday.

Kim Elaine McIntyre, 29, entered the pleas Wednesday to five counts of child endangerment--one for each of the children in her care at the time of her arrest--and one count of cultivating marijuana, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marsh M. Goldstein.

McIntyre could receive up to four years in prison, but Goldstein said that Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James M. Coleman indicated that he may place her on probation. Sentencing is set for May 8. McIntyre was arrested July 10, 1990, after police received an anonymous tip that marijuana was being grown at her house.