Woman Charged With Murder in Boys’ Heat Deaths

A Lancaster woman whose two foster sons died last year after she left them in a sweltering sport utility vehicle was charged Wednesday with two counts of murder by Los Angeles County prosecutors who had initially charged her with child abuse.

Day-care operator Leslie Sue Smoot, 48, originally faced more than 15 years in prison if convicted on the child abuse counts. With the additional charges, she now faces the possibility of life in prison, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors allege that the brothers, ages 3 and 5, died after Smoot left them unattended in her Cadillac Escalade on the morning of July 8. The car was parked outside of Smoot’s day-care center in the Antelope Valley, where temperatures that day reached 100 degrees. The children were in the car for approximately five hours, prosecutors said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tannaz Mokayef said her decision to add the murder charges was not based on new evidence. Rather, she said, “as the case progressed, we evaluated and reevaluated it. And based on the evaluations ... we decided it’d be appropriate to add murder to the existing charges.”

Smoot has pleaded not guilty and is free on $100,000 bail.

Defense attorney Michael Eberhardt said Wednesday he was “shocked” by the new charges and added that he would move to dismiss the case. Smoot, he said, simply forgot about the kids in the car.

Eberhardt compared the case to that of Mark J. Warschauer, the UC Irvine professor who left his 10-month-old son in his car in August while at his office.

Although Warschauer’s son also died -- and the Irvine Police Department recommended that charges be filed -- Orange County prosecutors decided in October the matter was a mistake, saying they could not prove Warschauer showed “conscious disregard” for the child’s safety, and no charges were filed.

In Smoot’s case, Eberhardt said, “I don’t know how they could say it’s an intentional act -- and that’s what they’d have to show” to get a murder conviction.

A pretrial conference in the case is set for Jan. 28.