A driver for a Richmond day-care center faces 15 years in prison after being convicted in the death of a 13-month-old boy who was left in a van used by the center on a hot July day. Keishawn L. Whitfield was convicted yesterday by Richmond Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals after a trial that lasted nearly three hours. Whitfield, 24, is to be sentenced Jan. 8, when he could get up to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and five years for felony child neglect.

Children have been left unattended in licensed day-care center vehicles at least 11 times in the past 2½ years in Virginia in procedural lapses similar to last week’s tragedy in Richmond, state regulators say. The Virginia Department of Social Services recorded 11 cases since January 2007 that violated the agency’s licensing code requiring day-care center staff to verify that all children have been removed from a vehicle at the end of any trip.