PORTALES, N.M. — Two New Mexico women were sentenced Monday in the hot car death of a toddler and the injury of another child, according to news reports.
Day care owner and operator Mary Taylor and her daughter Sandi Taylor were convicted of leaving two 1-year-old girls in a hot car for three hours after a trip to a park in July 2017, KRQE reported.
Mary Taylor received 36 years behind bars. Sandi Taylor was sentenced to 30 years, The Associated Press reported.
The 22-month-old child died of her injuries, and the other toddler, a 2-year-old girl, suffered permanent brain damage, the AP reported.
“Choices have consequences,” the judge said today. Mary Taylor gets 36 years. Her daughter, Sandi Taylor, gets 30 for leaving two infants in a hot car. https://t.co/8KAamOaHB4
— Ryan Laughlin (@RyanLaughlinKOB) March 5, 2019
Both had been sentenced to the maximum 36 years in prison, but the judge shaved six years off Sandi Taylor's sentence because she told the truth to investigators when they arrived on the scene and apologized to the families. Her mother initially told police the girls had been sleeping on the couch and she didn't know what happened, KRQE reported.
A jury convicted the Taylors of reckless child abuse last month after a weeklong trial. The women's attorney said he plans to appeal, the television station reported.
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