Cops: Mom who locked infants in hot car to "teach them a lesson" indicted
WEATHORFORD, Texas -- A North Texas mother has been indicted on two counts of knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a child after her two toddlers died in a hot car.
A Parker County Grand Jury indicted 25-year-old Cynthia Marie Randolph on Thursday. The first degree felony charges carry a sentence of up to life in prison. It was unclear from court records if Randolph has an attorney.
Randolph was arrested in June for the May 26 deaths of 1-year-old Cavanaugh Ramirez and 2-year-old Juliet Ramirez.
She initially told police the children had locked themselves in the car, and she broke a window to try and rescue them.
At the time, Randolph said the kids were exposed to the extreme temperatures in the car for "no more than an hour." But her account changed over the course of several interviews with investigators until she acknowledged that she left them in the car intentionally, the Parker County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.
An arrest warrant says Randolph told police she locked the two children in the car for several hours to teach them a lesson because her daughter often got out of the car without permission. She said she went back inside, smoked marijuana and slept for two to three hours.
When she awoke, she found her children dead, and broke the window to corroborate her initial story, officials say.
Autopsy reports released earlier this month ruled the deaths homicides.