By Devoun Cetoute Miami Herald (TNS) and Tribune Media Services
Two Florida parents are responsible for the death of their baby — an 18-month-old who was left inside of a hot car for hours — after a night of drinking and doing drugs at a Fourth of July party, authorities say.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the child’s death was one of the most “horrible [and] tragic” he has seen in a long time.
Joel and Jazmine Rondon, both 33 years old from Lakeland, are facing charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child.
On Monday night, the couple took their three children, all under 9 years old, with them to a Fourth of July party, the sheriff’s office said. The Rondons drank alcohol and smoked weed while there.
They didn’t return home with the kids until 3 a.m. the next morning. While unpacking the car, Jazmine told Joel to get the 18-month-old girl while she takes the other two children, 8 and 6 years old, inside.
Joel mistakenly thought the toddler, too, was inside the home after he saw the car doors closed. The family went to sleep, with the baby still in the car.
It wasn’t until an hour after Joel woke up at 10 a.m. to get ready for work that he realized something was wrong, deputies said. He asked one of the kids to go “check on the baby” in the bedroom.
After not finding her there, Joel looked around the house to no avail. He then went outside and found the child still in the car strapped in her car seat.
He brought her inside and then the couple drove her to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center.
“Even though it’s painfully evident this child has suffered a torturous death, Lakeland Regional still worked on the baby to try to save it’s life,” Judd said during a press conference.
When the couple was drug tested 17 hours after arriving home, an investigation revealed that Jazmine tested positive for alcohol and marijuana. As for Joel, he tested positive for alcohol, marijuana and methamphetamine.
“You can imagine what kind of shape they were in when they arrived from this party and left this child harnessed in the baby seat in the back of the car,” Judd said.
The child’s cause of death is hyperthermia due to being left in a car, an autopsy determined. Judd said it was possibly as hot as 95 degree outside, with the temperature of the car being anywhere between another 130 to 170 degrees.
On Monday, the entire world experienced the hottest global average day since at least 1979 — a record that lasted until Tuesday, when it was broken again.
“[The child] is not old enough to let herself out of the harness but she is certainly old enough to realize she is suffering a torturous death at the negligence of Joel and Jazmine.”
