Texas Mom Gets 20 Years After Locking Toddlers Inside Car

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Mom Gets 20 Year Sentence For Leaving Her Kids In Car

A Texas mom was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, after the death of her two children. The women left the toddlers in a hot car to reportedly teach the older one a “lesson,” which prosecutors confirmed to PEOPLE.

Prior to her sentencing, 25-year-old Cynthia Randolph was convicted of two counts of reckless injury to a child causing serious bodily injury or death.

On May 26, 2017, authorities arrested Randolph after discovering her children — Juliet Ramirez, 2, and her 1-year-old brother Cavanaugh — unresponsive. The temperature that day had reached 96 degrees, causing the children to die from heatstroke, according to officials.

Police said that last year, Randolph initially claimed that the children “took off” and locked themselves inside the small vehicle, then forcing her to break a window in an attempt to save them. But Randolph changed her story about what happened several different times before admitting she left them inside the vehicle after her daughter refused to leave.

Her week-long trial began on April 23, in which jurors heard 13 hours of video-recorded interviews. In those, it is said that Randolph told different stories about how her children died. “Ultimately, she said that she watched her children get into the car, told them to get out, they refused, and she slammed the door to the car to teach the older child a lesson,” stated Swain in a press release.

Randolph finally admitted to officials that she went inside her home, smoked marijuana and watched Keeping Up with the Kardashians before falling asleep for 2-4 hours, according to the press release. After jurors deliberated for less than an hour, Randolph was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years for each crime.