The Texas mother who locked her two young children inside a blazing hot car as a form of punishment was indicted by a grand jury Monday, reports confirmed. Cynthia Marie Randolph, 24, was indicted on two first-degree felony charges of causing serious bodily injury.

Randolph's two children died in May after she left them inside a hot car in the driveway for hours. Two-year-old Juliet Ramirez and 16-month-old Cavanaugh Ramirez were pronounced dead at the scene. The temperature that day had reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit, authorities said. On a 95 degree day, temperatures can top 140 degrees in just a single hour inside an unventilated car, according to noheatstroke.org.

Randolph initially gave police conflicting accounts of what happened to her children. She first alleged that her children had "took off" and locked themselves in the car of their own volition and that she broke a window to get them out, according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by People magazine. Later, however, Randolph drastically changed her story. She admitted the two toddlers were playing inside the car and refused to get out. As punishment, she "shut the car door to teach her daughter a 'lesson,' thinking 'she could get herself and her brother out of the car when ready,'" police said in the affidavit.

"[Randolph] then told investigators she went into her home, smoked marijuana and went to sleep for two to three hours," police said.

When she woke up, she couldn't find the children inside the house. When she went to her 2010 Honda, she found her children unresponsive inside. All the doors to the car were still locked, so Randolph broke the window and brought them inside. After plugging in her cell phone, which she had left inside the car with the children, she called 911, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. When authorities arrived at the home, the two children were pronounced dead at the scene.

"This just makes this 10 times worse that a mother would actually do this kind of thing," Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler told the Star-Telegram in June. "This is beyond the pale. Words don't actually describe it."

The mother had not yet entered a plea in the case and remained jailed on $200,000 bond. Should she be convicted of the crime, Randolph could face up to life in prison.

"The culpable mental state required for first-degree felony injury to a child is that the defendant knowingly engaged in conduct that was reasonably certain to cause serious bodily injury or death," Parker County assistant district attorney Jeff Swain told the Star-Telegram in an email. "By comparison, to prove a murder or capital murder, it must be proven that the defendant specifically intended to cause the death of the child."

While Randolph awaits trial in jail, one of her close friends said that despite the image being portrayed of her now, she was a good mother.

"She was a good mom," Destiny Castillo, Randolph's best friend since sixth grade, told the Star-Telegram. "She wasn't perfect, none of us are. But Cynthia always made sure she put her children first."

RELATED STORIES
Criminal Law