The mother of the two boys who died of hyperthermia
has been arrested. Authorities say they found out she
was having sex with her boyfriend while the kids were
left alone for two hours with the heat on in the car.
(The boys and their father pictured above) The story
below...
A mother whose children died after she locked
them in the car with a heater running, while she
had sex in another vehicle, is on trial for homicide.
Prosecutors say Heather Jensen, 25, carried out a
"death sentence" against her two young sons
when she locked then in the hot car, Fox 31
Denver reports.
The charges against Ms Jensen include criminally
negligent homicide, child abuse resulting in death
and false reporting. Continue...
"Ms Jensen created the situation that caused her
children to die," prosecutor Danielle Lewis said in
opening statements.
Her defence says her actions should be assessed with
regard to her low IQ, her youth and the fact her
husband died six weeks earlier in a car accident.
"It was a tragedy, but it was an accident. It was not a
crime," said public defender Elsa Archambault.
Ms Jensen sobbed loudly as her trial opened last week
in Mesa County District Court, Colorado.
Ms Jensen’s sons, William, 2, and 4-year-old Tyler,
died on November 27, 2012. She told her new live-in
boyfriend she was taking the boys to play in the snow
and drove them to a snow park, where she met up with
a male friend to have sex in the car park.
At first, she left the two boys in the car with the heat
on and the doors unlocked.
After about 30 minutes, Tyler opened the door and Ms
Jensen returned him to her car, gave him a mobile
phone to play with and secured the child locks before
returning to her friend.
The children are said to have spent 90 minutes in the
car, where an investigation revealed temperatures could
have reached 60 degrees Celsius. Both boys died from
hyperthermia.
Ms Jensen’s defence attributes her poor decision
making to her low IQ of 76, which makes her borderline
developmentally disabled.
A boyfriend also told investigating police that Ms
Jensen had smoked marijuana the day before the
children died.
In the three months leading up to the deaths, she had
failed court-ordered drug tests three times, the Daily
Sentinel reports. The testing was tied to a March 2012
arrest for domestic violence. Her husband Eric had told
police Ms Jensen became violent after he confronted
her about spending time with friends who supplied her
with painkillers Vicodin and Percocet.
Following the deaths of her sons, Ms Jensen also
violated the terms of her probation and left Colorado
for Florida, to be with her family.
"I believe it would be a great opportunity for me to
start my life over again in Florida, and being
surrounded by all my family who loves me to help me
get through the losses I’ve had in this past month," Ms
Jensen wrote in the letter to a Mesa County judge.
"And I would greatly appreciate it if you will let me
move on with my life in Florida."
Ms Jensen's request was denied and she was arrested
at her mother's home in North Fort Myers, Florida on
January 16, 2013.
The jury deciding the case was made up of 10 women
and five men, but a judge removed one of the jurors
from the trial when he found out she added a witness
from the trial as a friend on Facebook, CBS Denver
reports. The trial is expected to run for nine days.
Source: News.com
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