Mother Receives Probation After Children Die In Fire
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 2:16 pm
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Lancaster mother whose four children died in a house fire was put on probation for 10 years.
Denetris Lofton was convicted of reckless injury.
Prosecutors said Lofton left her sleeping children in her home with a candle burning. Investigators ruled the fire was an accident.
Neighbors testified it wasn't the first time Lofton left her children home alone. The children were ages 4 to 12.
Meanwhile in an unrelated case, a mother of three who had trouble walking and other medical problems died in a house fire Monday in Fort Worth.
Penny Lane Sanderson, 29, was alone in the home at the time of the blaze. She had sent her children -- ages 9, 7 and 4 -- to live with relatives when she began having seizures recently.
The fire was started by combustibles too close to a space heater, firefighters said. The home did not have a fire detector.
Firefighters found Sanderson's body in the living room near the front door, said Lt. Kent Worley, Fire Department spokesman.
Sanderson had pins placed in her legs after a wreck more than a year ago, friends say. Unable to work, she went on welfare to support her family.
"She inspired me," neighbor Crystal Garcia told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "She's lived a hard, hard life. She would always bring me up because she had such a positive outlook."
Denetris Lofton was convicted of reckless injury.
Prosecutors said Lofton left her sleeping children in her home with a candle burning. Investigators ruled the fire was an accident.
Neighbors testified it wasn't the first time Lofton left her children home alone. The children were ages 4 to 12.
Meanwhile in an unrelated case, a mother of three who had trouble walking and other medical problems died in a house fire Monday in Fort Worth.
Penny Lane Sanderson, 29, was alone in the home at the time of the blaze. She had sent her children -- ages 9, 7 and 4 -- to live with relatives when she began having seizures recently.
The fire was started by combustibles too close to a space heater, firefighters said. The home did not have a fire detector.
Firefighters found Sanderson's body in the living room near the front door, said Lt. Kent Worley, Fire Department spokesman.
Sanderson had pins placed in her legs after a wreck more than a year ago, friends say. Unable to work, she went on welfare to support her family.
"She inspired me," neighbor Crystal Garcia told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "She's lived a hard, hard life. She would always bring me up because she had such a positive outlook."