Alabama parents sentenced to prison in boy’s hot car death

DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A mother and father from Alabama were both sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in the death of their 2-year-old son, who died in a hot car outside their home in 2019.

Robert Patrick King, 36, pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter on Thursday and was sentenced to more than four years in prison, news outlets reported. His ex-wife Melinda King, 40, got the same sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter in August, records show.

Authorities alleged the couple was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs at home in Dothan when their son Castiel King went outside and climbed into a car in June 2019 on a day when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The child, who couldn’t get out and was later found by police, was pronounced dead at a hospital.