A Florida couple was arrested after they allegedly left their 18-month-old daughter inside a car for hours after drinking and doing drugs at a Fourth of July party.
Joel and Jazmine Rondon, both 33, have each been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, a first-degree felony, FOX 13 reported.
The couple also allegedly tested positive for marijuana and alcohol more than 17 hours after the party and Joel tested positive for methamphetamine, the sheriff’s department said, according to FOX 13.
“So you can imagine what kind of shape they were in when they left this child harnessed in a baby seat in the back of the car,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Thursday.
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Judd said that the Rondons, along with their 8-year-old, 6-year-old and the 18-month-old, returned from the party in Lakeland, Florida, at 3 a.m. on July 5.
Jazmine put the two older children to bed and asked her husband to get the 18-month-old, Judd said.
Joel noticed that the car door was open when he went to take some food inside, then came out to apparently find the door closed and assumed his wife had gotten the toddler and went to bed, Judd added.
It wasn’t until late the next morning that they realized the toddler wasn’t in the house and ran outside to find her still in the car.
Detectives later found the girl still had a 104-degree core temperate three hours after being removed from the vehicle and after “the hospital tried to cool the baby down,” Judd said.
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“He goes to the car and there is the baby still strapped in the child carrier in the car with a heat index of 105 degrees on that day,” Judd said. “He grabbed the child carrier and the infant from the car, runs inside screaming for Jazmine. Jazmine, who as reported, has some medical training, looks at the baby and says I know the baby is deceased.”
He said the couple rushed the toddler to a hospital.
“Upon arrival there, even though it is painfully evident that this child has suffered a torturous death, an absolute torturous death,” he said. “Lakeland Regional still worked on the baby to try to save its life, but it was, in fact, deceased.”
He added, “This child is 18 months old. She not old enough to let herself out of the harness, but she’s certainly old enough to realize that she is suffering a torturous death at the negligence of Joel and Jazmine.”
Judd said Joel has a criminal history from when he was a teenager. He was arrested twice when he was 15 and 18 in connection to a shooting and was a documented gang member.
He said Joel also has pending charges for methamphetamine and carrying a concealed firearm and a history of resisting arrest.
Jazmine has not prior criminal history.
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“This rips your heart out. There’s no other way to explain it,” Judd added. “This is not an accident. This is pure negligence. And I suggest to you the core of the negligence is the abuse of drugs and the abuse of drugs. And who suffered? Who died? The 18-month-old baby. So don’t ever tell me that these drugs are low level and non-violent because they’re at the core of why this child is dead.”
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