AUTOPSY: HEAT KILLED BOYS FOSTER MOM FREED ON BAIL; COURT DATE SET.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Autopsies performed Thursday confirmed that two young brothers died earlier this week of hyperthermia - excessive heat - after they were left in an SUV for more than five hours under the desert sun.

Hours before the causes of death were determined, the boys' foster mother, Leslie Smoot, 48, was freed from jail after posting $100,000 bail.

Smoot, jailed on suspicion of felony child endangerment, has yet to be charged, but is scheduled to be arraigned July 30.

Meanwhile a friend of the boys' biological mother has opened an account to pay the costs of funerals and burial for Dakota Prince, 5, and his 3-year-old brother, Nehemiah.

The friend, Danida Shamburger, who rented a Lancaster house to the boy's 38-year-old mother, Twila Prince, said the woman was devastated when she learned her sons had died Tuesday after being locked in Smoot's Cadillac Escalade outside the day care center Smoot owns.

``I called her Wednesday morning. ... That's when she told me that they killed her kids. She said, 'They killed my babies,''' Shamburger said. ``I just broke down and cried.''

Shamburger described Dakota and Nehemiah as active little boys.

``They were so busy, very active. That's why I can't see how they could have missed them,'' Shamburger said. ``They were literally bouncing-off-the-wall kind of kids.''

Shamburger said she rented a house in Lancaster to Prince and three of her four children from November to May, when she evicted Prince for nonpayment of rent.

Prince was arrested and charged with making a threat after she threatened over the telephone the staff of a nonprofit agency that helps families and children in need.

Prince pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of making a threat and was sentenced April 7 to 30 days in jail, receiving credit for 27 days, officials said.

Prince's property was boxed up by Shamburger's sons and placed in the garage of the Lancaster house, Shamburger said.

``She's a nice person. The little money she had, she paid my boys $10 each for boxing up her stuff,'' Shamburger said.

Prince was in Lancaster on Tuesday, the day her sons died, for personal business and to pick up a check that Shamburger had for her, Shamburger said.

When Shamburger asked Prince whether she wanted to take any of her belongings with her, Prince grabbed one of her sons' Bob the Builder cartoon blanket.

``She was holding on to it and rubbing it. She missed her kids,'' Shamburger said. ``I said if you want to take something now, you can. I opened the garage. That was all she took.''

Shamburger said she has set up a bank account through Washington Mutual for people to donate money to help Prince cover funeral expenses. The account number is 0920578286.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com