Texas Mom Sentenced To 20 Years In Hot Car Deaths Of 2 Young Kids

WEATHERFORD, TX — A Texas woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison after authorities say she left her two young children in a hot car last summer as punishment. Her two children, a 2-year-old girl and a 16-month-old boy, were found unresponsive after being locked in the car as temperatures reached 96 degrees and they were later pronounced dead.

Cynthia Randolph, 25, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday and she will serve her two terms concurrently. She was found guilty of two counts of injury to a child. Randolph initially told investigators that her two kids "took off" and locked themselves inside the car, police said at the time. She told authorities that she searched the area for the kids before finding them inside the car.

In further interviews with police, Randolph "created several variations" of the events that led to the death of her children, The Dallas Morning News reported. She ultimately implicated herself in the deaths, telling authorities that she ordered the kids out of the car when she found them playing inside and when the daughter refused to come out, she locked the two inside to teach her daughter a "lesson," according to the news report. She also said she broke a car window to so it would look like an accident.

While the jury found her guilty, they did not find that she acted with criminal intent, according to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

According to the Star-Telegram, Randolph went inside after locking the two kids in the car, smoked some marijuana, watched "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," and then took a nap. She was arrested about a month after the death of her two children.

Image via Parker County Jail