NBC 4

POSTED: 6:25 a.m. PDT June 26, 2002

LOS ANGELES -- A baby sitter was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail for leaving a 6-month-old girl to die in a hot car in a case that prompted passage of a law aimed at protecting other children.

"I know you trusted me and I failed that day, and I am so sorry," baby sitter Sue Ann Calderon of Corona told the parents of Kaitlyn Russell during her sentencing for involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.

Kaitlyn's Aug. 15, 2000, death prompted her mother, Tammy, to launch a crusade to educate people about the dangers of leaving children alone in cars. It also resulted in the state Legislature passing Kaitlyn's Law. The measure, which took effect in January, makes it illegal to leave a child 6 or younger unattended in a car.

Calderon, who has been free on $25,000 bail, was ordered to surrender to authorities on July 3. The 37-year-old mother of three was also sentenced to 200 hours of community service and three years of probation, a sentence Kaitlyn's family said was just.
  
Calderon left Kaitlyn in her car for more than two hours while she visited with a friend from church.

She told authorities she didn't realize the girl was in the car, but a probation report stated: "It is far more reasonable to believe she left Kaitlyn in the car to sleep, and intended to check on her later and simply lost track of time and forgot."

Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press.  
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