Montana mom, 21, left toddler to die in car for 14 hours and went partying

3years ago

Billings news, Montana news.

Two months after conviction, a judge sentenced a Montana mom to 20 years behind bars for the 2018 death of her toddler son inside a hot car.

Ashley Howard, 21, was found guilty of negligent homicide over the heatstroke death of 2-year-old Caleb Hopkins on June 25 when she left him in her car in the evening and didn’t recall him until the next afternoon.

By then, Caleb’s body temperature reached 107 degrees, 3 degrees over the fatal heatstroke.

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  • “I struggle with saying that I killed my son,” Howard, who went partying and sleeping during the fateful 14 hours that Caleb spent in the hot car, told the court.

    “Because nobody wants to be the reason their son is no longer here. I miss him every day. I know that I will always love my son and I will always miss him.”

    But the toddler’s grandmother, Marsha Hopkins, said that the reckless mom never took the responsibility for her actions.

    “You will have to live with the fact that you alone killed Caleb. Do I think you meant to? No. Do I think that you could have prevented it? Absolutely. You knew what could have happened if you left him in the car, and you made that choice.”