Toddler left overnight in hot car after Fourth of July party dies
An 18-month-old girl died after her parents left her in a hot car overnight following a party on the Fourth of July holiday.
Jazmine and Joel Rondon, both 33, accidentally left their daughter in her car seat as they took their two other children out of the vehicle after getting home from the Independence Day event, police said.
The next morning, Joel did not see the toddler inside the home and found her strapped to her car seat unresponsive. She was taken to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Her internal body temperature was over 104 degrees Fahrenheit at 2.42pm, NBC News reported.
‘An autopsy determined that the victim’s cause of death is hyperthermia due to being left in a car, and the manner of death is homicide,’ stated the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
The Rondons, of Lakeland, Florida, were arrested on Thursday and had drug tests taken. Joel tested positive for methamphetamines, marijuana and alcohol, while Jazmine tested positive for the latter two, according to the sheriff’s office.
They were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and taken to Polk County Jail.
The toddler died out of ‘pure negligence’, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said on Thursday.
Temperatures were in the 70s at night and likely 94 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit by 11am, he estimated.
‘The car was outside, not in a garage, not under a tree, not under any shade at all,’ said Judd.
‘And obviously we will try to recreate with the same temperature the heat of the car. Research shows us that the temperature of the car could have been anywhere between 130 and 170 degrees.’
The couple’s two other children are under the care of relatives. The Department of Child and Family services are probing the incident.
It was not immediately known if the Rondons have retained a lawyer.
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