Texas mother gets 20-year terms for toddlers' hot-car deaths

WEATHERFORD, Texas -- (KABB) -- A North Texas mother whose two toddlers died in a hot car last May has been sentenced to two 20-year prison terms to be served simultaneously.

A Parker County jury in Weatherford sentenced 25-year-old Cynthia Marie Randolph to the maximum sentences Monday. The same jury convicted her of two second-degree felony counts of recklessly causing injury to a child hours earlier.

Randolph's charges were reduced. She had faced two first-degree felony counts of knowingly causing serious injury to a child. A conviction on those could have led to life sentences.

An arrest warrant says Randolph told police she locked 1-year-old Cavanaugh Ramirez and 2-year-old Juliet Ramirez in the car for several hours to teach them a lesson because her daughter often got out of the car without permission.