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Mother Convicted In Sons' Deaths Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4)- The mother whose two sons died of overheating after she left them in a running SUV last winter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Judge Valerie Robinson sentenced Heather Jensen to 10 years in the Department of Corrections. She did not receive the maximum penalty that the law allowed.

On Jan. 31 jurors acquitted Heather Jensen of criminally negligent homicide but found her guilty of child abuse resulting in death and false reporting.

Prosecutors said 2-year-old William and 4-year-old Tyler died of hyperthermia after Jensen left them in her SUV with the motor running and the heater on in late November 2012 while she had sex and smoked marijuana in another vehicle nearby.

Jensen Arrest
Heather Jensen (credit: Lee County Sheriff's Office, Florida), Investigation scene near Powderhorn (credit: CBS)

Jensen's husband had died in a car crash less than two months earlier.

According to authorities, on Nov. 27, 2012, Jensen strapped her sons into car seats in the back of her SUV without coats and drove to Grand Mesa east of Grand Junction to meet a male friend.

She then left the boys in the vehicle for more than 90 minutes while she and the man talked, smoked and got into his truck to have sex.

Jensen later called 911 to report that Tyler was barely breathing and William was unconscious, not breathing and had no pulse. William was pronounced dead at the scene, while Tyler died later at a hospital.

Jensen has 49 days to appeal the sentence.

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