Mom Gets Probation for Leaving Child in Hot Car to Die

Elizabeth Cuesta left her 18-month old son in a hot car to die

A Miami mom whose son died after she left him in a hot car has avoided jail time for the tragic accident.

Elizabeth Cuesta, 40, will receive five years of probation for the 2009 incident which took the life of her 18-month-old son Diego Vega. She could have been sentenced to 30 years in prison if convicted, but a plea deal Tuesday paved the way for the judge's leniency.

She also won't have a conviction on her criminal record.

In May 2009, Cuesta left her son inside a car for six hours while she ran into a pet store where she worked. She told police she was in such a rush she forgot that she had not taken the boy to daycare and continued working as if she had.

The boy's father found the toddler unconscious in the hot truck hours later.

The case could be used as a bench mark for other incidents in which children have died from being left in hot cars unattended.

In recent months there have been more than a half dozen cases of parents and daycare centers forgetting children in vehicles left in the baking South Florida sun.

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