Mother who left kids in apartment that burned gets probation

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A St. Louis woman has been sentenced to probation after leaving her four young children alone in an apartment that caught fire.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 29-year-old Crystal Ford pleaded guilty to four felony counts of child endangerment and received a four-year suspended sentence from the judge on Wednesday.

The fire broke out in August 2019 at a three-family flat. All four of the children were younger than 4 and were left alone. Emergency responders found three of them in cardiac arrest and revived them. The children suffered smoke inhalation but survived.

Charges against Ford's then-boyfriend, Keith Witherspoon, are pending in St. Louis Circuit Court.