Texas mom gets 20 years for leaving kids to die in hot car

A Texas mom who left her two kids to die in a hot car as punishment while she smoked weed will spend the next 20 years in prison.

Parker County jurors reportedly found 25-year-old Cynthia Marie Randolph guilty Monday of two counts injury to a child after abandoning her daughter, 2, and son, 16 months.

She got 20 years for each count, but prosecutor Jeff Swain said to ABC affiliate WFAA the sentences will run concurrently.

The children died in May 2017 after being left in a sweltering car that was almost 100 degrees by the time first responders arrived.

Randolph, who was charged last June, initially said the kids must’ve gotten themselves locked in the car while she was doing laundry.

But Randolph later came clean that she locked them in there as a “lesson” when her daughter, Juliet Ramirez, was playing in the car and refused to get out.

Randolph said to police she thought the toddler “could get herself and her brother, Cavanaugh Ramirez, out of the car when ready,” the Dallas Morning News reported.

Meanwhile, she went inside to smoke marijuana and nap for more than two hours.

The children reportedly died within a half an hour of first responders’ arrival, the cause of death attributed to raised body temperatures.

Last year was one of the deadliest for children left in cars during warm weather, according to noheatstroke.com, with 42 dying from heatstroke.