A woman who left her 2-year-old granddaughter in a hot car last July pleaded guilty today to criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death.
The victim, Elizabeth Buchmiller, died of heat exposure.
Court records indicate that on the day Elizabeth died, Yvonne Mabry, 36, had been drinking “several beers and some hard liquor” and had taken some pain medication while in charge of Elizabeth and her 5-year-old sister.
Under a plea bargain, Mabry will be sentenced to five years of intensive supervised probation with no early termination. She is also not allowed to drink alcohol or supervise children under 10 years of age.
Denver District Judge Robert McGahey will formally sentence Mabry on May 4.
According to officer Brian Cotter, Mabry said she had returned from the liquor store and she and the children were very tired.
Mabry told Cotter that she thought she must have put Elizabeth in the car but didn’t remember doing it.
“She stated that she was drunk and was sorry that she didn’t remember more about what had happened,” Cotter quoted Mabry as saying.
A neighbor found the child near Mabry’s home in the Jody Apartments at 5375 W. 10th Ave.
She was in the parking lot in the back seat of a four-door, maroon Buick LeSabre with its windows rolled up on a day the temperature climbed to 97 degrees.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
