National
Jail time for Alaska mom who left kids in cold car
Posted: Sep 13, 2012 4:52 PM
Updated: Sep 13, 2012 4:53 PM
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) An Alaska woman accused of leaving her two young children in a car when it was nearly 30 degrees below zero has been given jail time.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (http://is.gd/LGKFNd) 26-year-old Kristin Smith of Fairbanks was sentenced Wednesday to three months in jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
Alaska State Troopers say it was 28 degrees below zero when Smith left her two children ages 3 and 4 in a car one January morning after the vehicle slid off the road and got stuck in a ditch.
Authorities say the children were in the car for about 20 minutes before a passer-by found them sitting by themselves wearing little clothing.
Troopers interviewed Smith later in the day. She told them she left the kids in the car and walked a quarter-mile to her husband's house, where she took a prescription medication and fell asleep.
