A mom who left her two young daughters inside a sweltering hot car while she gambled inside a casino has now been jailed for their murders.
Launice Battle, 31, from Wake County, North Carolina , pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in the deaths of Trinity Milbourne, two, and her sister Amora, three.
On Thursday, she was sentenced to serve between just under eight and 10 and a half years in a state correctional facility.
Back on 27 August 2022, Battle drove to the casino Vegas Style Sweepstakes in Raleigh and left her children in the car while she went inside.
The vehicle was parked only partially in the shade, while outside temperatures soared to 95F (35C).
The children were left there for around six hours from 2.30pm until she finally returned at 8.30pm that evening, according to an autopsy report first obtained by WNCN .
Upon her return, she found the two toddlers unresponsive and drove them to Duke Raleigh Emergency Department in Wake Forest.
They were pronounced dead that evening with an autopsy ruling hyperthermia as the cause and Battle was arrested for murder.