Wytheville woman gets 8 days for leaving kids home alone 

Convicted of abandoning her children for several days last winter without adequate food and no heat, a Wytheville woman was given an eight-day jail sentence on Wednesday.

Heather G. Bennett, 32, pleaded guilty to three counts of felony child abuse or neglect during a brief hearing in Wythe County Circuit Court.

According to the prosecution’s evidence, Bennett left her 15-, 12- and 10-year-old children alone in the house on Dec. 20, 2012, without telling them that she was leaving. When Bennett still hadn’t returned by Jan. 3, the children went to a relative’s house because they didn’t have any heat in their residence.

In addition to getting the eight-day jail sentence, Bennett was placed on probation for five years and waived her Fourth Amendment right, which means that she can be searched by police at any time while she’s on probation.

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