CASTLE ROCK — If you had met 5-year-old Jasmine and 2-year-old Nathan, their mother says, you would have fallen in love with them.
“Jasmine, she always wanted to be in charge,” Stacey Mendieta said. “Nathan, my baby, big little boy. (He had) the biggest smile.”
It’s been a year since police found the two children dead in a hot car.
On Aug. 20, 2008, Mendieta says she was taking a nap with Nathan inside her home.
She didn’t hear Jasmine wake him up and both children leave through the back door.
“Never in a million years did I think something like this would happen,” Mendieta said. “They’ve never left the house on their own, never tried getting in the car on their own. It doesn’t make any sense, and I’ll never understand. Some days, it’s so hard to believe. It’s still so fresh, like it was yesterday.”
The children got into her car, which was parked in front of the home, and investigators say that for some reason, the two fell asleep and ultimately died from the extreme heat.
Prosecutors charged the then 28-year-old mother with two counts of child abuse resulting in death.
On Sept. 3, Mendieta pleaded no contest to a lesser child-abuse charge. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to seek prison time. She was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
Watch the video interview and read the rest of this story, including details about the foundation Mendieta set up, at .
