Jury recommends more than 50 years in prison for Missouri mom whose two children died in hot car

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A jury has recommended a Missouri woman, whose two young daughters died inside a hot car in 2018, be sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

A Clay County jury found Jenna Boedecker guilty Friday of two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two misdemeanor counts.

The same jury recommended Monday that Boedecker be sentenced to 22 years each for the two second-degree murder convictions and a total of nine years for the endangering the welfare of a child convictions.

Prosecutors alleged Boedecker said she put her 2-year-old daughter and 8-week-old daughter in her Jeep while she argued with her husband, and then fell asleep at their rural Kearney home July 3, 2018. She found them unresponsive the next morning and took them to a neighbor's home for help, but emergency responders declared the girls dead.

Evidence during the trial showed Boedecker had about two times the therapeutic amount of Xanax in her system the day her daughters were found, WDAF-TV reported.

Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said evidence also showed Boedecker had contact with law enforcement the day before the girls died about a separate incident of leaving the children in the vehicle.

A hearing on any motion for a new trial and sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 3.