A mother who left her two toddlers in a hot car to die while she partied has been jailed for 40 years. Amanda Kristene Hawkins, 20, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abandonment child endangerment and injury to a child.
The Texas mother left her two toddlers, two-year-old Addyson Overgard-Eddy and one-year-old Brynn Hawkins, strapped in their car seats inside a hot car on June 6, 2017 around 9pm. They had no food or water while their mom smoked marijuana and partied in a shed.
The babies sat helpless in their car seats for more than 15 hours until noon the next day. According to reports, when a friend asked Hawkins whether the kids should be brought in as they were crying, she allegedly said, "No, they'll cry themselves to sleep".
On June 7, the toddlers were discovered to be in a serious condition and close to death as the temperature in the car rose to 33 degree celsius.
Reports said that instead of taking the children directly to the hospital, Hawkins gave them a bath and dressed them in a different set of clothes. The sheriff's office said, Hawkins was afraid she will get into trouble and hence did not directly take them to the hospital. They were eventually taken to the hospital on June 8, but died later that day.
Hawkins initially tried to cover up her neglect by claiming that the babies had passed out after smelling flowers at a local park. But it was later found that the mum had left the girls in her vehicle while she partied.
In September, Hawkins pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless injury to a child and two counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Last week, a judge sentenced her to 40 years in prison. According to reports, the two babies had different fathers and either of them were not present at the time of the incident.
Another person Kevin Franke was also arrested in connection to the case. Franke, who was 16 at the time, said he slept in the car. But he claimed he was unaware the kids were present in the car. Franke, now 18, was later arrested. He pleaded not guilty in April to two counts of manslaughter, two counts of injury to a child and two counts of child endangerment. His trial is scheduled for January.
