(Reuters) - A Kansas man was sentenced to nearly three years in prison on Friday for letting his 10-month-old foster daughter die in a hot car while he smoked marijuana and watched television.
Seth Jackson, 29, who pled guilty in November to one count of involuntary manslaughter, was sentenced to 32 months in prison, a Sedgwick County District Court official said. He had originally been charged with murder.
Police said he left the baby in a vehicle in Wichita, Kansas, for several hours on July 24 as temperatures in the city hovered around 90 degrees.
Jackson had picked up marijuana from a dealer and then returned home. He started using the drug without taking the girl out of the car, prosecutors said.
Jackson told police he forgot the girl was in the car until he saw something on TV that reminded him of her. He rushed to the car, but she was dead, police said.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas)
