Mother faces life in prison for leaving kids in hot car to 'teach them a lesson'
A Texas woman is facing life in prison for leaving her children in a hot car "to teach them a lesson".
Her two-year-old and 16-month-old both died from the incident.
Cynthia Marie Randolph, 24, left her two children inside the hot car for hours while she napped and smoked marijuana.
According to the criminal complaint, Randolph initially told investigators she was inside her rural home west of Fort Worth folding laundry and watching TV on May 26 while the children, two-year-old Juliet and 16-month-old Cavanaugh were playing on the enclosed back porch.
Temperatures had reached close to 37 degrees by the time the children were found, FOX 4 reported.
She has now been charged with causing serious bodily injury to a child and faces life in prison if convicted.
When she noticed the children were not in the house, she went looking for them and found them about 30 minutes later locked in the car, the mother told authorities at the time.
She said the children were in the hot car for "no more than an hour", but later changed her story.
The children were unresponsive and Randolph said she broke a window to gain entry.
However, her account of the incident changed several times over a number of interviews with investigators leading them to believe she had intentionally left them in the car.
Police later said Randolph admitted she left the toddlers in the car to “teach them a lesson” because her daughter would get out of the car, according to the arrest warrant.
She told investigators she thought her daughter would be able to get out with her brother when they were ready.
The children were pronounced dead about 30 minutes after authorities were notified, and four hours after they were left in the car.
