The 21-year-old Montana woman, convicted of negligent homicide leaving her toddler son in a 2018 hot car, was sentenced to 20 years in jail this week, PEOPLE confirms.
On Monday, two months after the jury held her liable for the death of her two-year – old baby, Ashley Howard was in court to hear of her fate, according to court documents.
The judge ordered that Howard will serve the next 20 years at the Montana State Women’s Prison in Billings.
Howard is supposed to get recognition for the two years that she has spent in custody.
She first pled not guilty to the negligent murder of Caleb Hopkins, who had spent more than eight hours in her vehicle back in late June 2018.
The Billings Gazette reports Howard left Caleb in her car the evening of June 25, 2018. She would not go to retrieve him until 1 p.m. the following afternoon.
Authorities said Howard spent the night partying with friends, and the next day, sleeping off a hangover.
Meanwhile, her son was inside her vehicle for 14 hours — with the sun blazing for eight of those hours.
Howard rushed the boy to a hospital on June 26, where doctors determined his body temperature was 107 degrees.
