Florida babysitter arrested after baby dies in 133-degree car
A Florida woman has been arrested and charged after a 10-month-old child she was babysitting was found dead after being left in a hot car for several hours on Wednesday, officials said.
Rhonda Jewell, 46, was arrested by the Baker County Sheriff’s Office and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, according to the arrest report.
Jewell, who had been the child’s babysitter since June, picked up the infant from the child’s mother’s house in Macclenny, Florida, around 8 a.m. Wednesday. She drove to another residence where she was going to babysit other children as well, but after arriving she went inside and left the infant in the vehicle.
The infant’s mother arrived to pick up her child around 1 p.m. when Jewell realized the child was still in the car. The mother called police, and the infant was transported to Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead, officials said.
Medical staff examining the infant said the child’s external temperature was 102 degrees, and the baby’s internal temperature was 110 degrees, noting that’s the highest its thermometer could read, according to WJAX-TV. The temperature inside the vehicle the child was left in reached 133 degrees, according to BCSO.
Jewell had an initial court appearance Thursday morning, and her bond was set at $25,000 with GPS monitoring upon release, officials said.