Florida babysitter facing manslaughter charges over the death of an infant who was accidentally left in a car for hours amid scorching temperatures, authorities say.
As the temperature climbs, so does the danger for children left in hot vehicles."As the Sheriff of a small community, posting the details of this tragedy is very hard for me," Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden said in a statement via Facebook on Thursday. "Each of us are given the gift of life every morning we wake up and every evening when we finish our day, we are blessed if our family is safe and healthy. In the blink of an eye, our world can be turned upside down.
Rhonda Jewell, 46, picked up a 10-month-old baby girl from the mother's residence in Macclenny, just west of Jacksonville, on Wednesday morning at approximately 8 a.m. ET, according to the Baker County Sheriff’s Office. Jewell then drove to another residence in Macclenny where she was going to babysit other children as well. When she arrived, she went inside the home, leaving the infant in the car, the sheriff's office said.
Jewell was subsequently arrested for aggravated manslaughter of a child and taken to the Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny. She had an initial court appearance on Thursday morning and the judge set her bond at $25,000 with GPS monitoring upon release, according to the sheriff's office. It was unclear whether Jewell had entered a plea or hired a defense attorney.
The judge also ordered Jewell to have no contact with the victim's family and to turn in her passport to the sheriff's office. A state prosecutor had asked for Jewell to have no bond, but the judge said that wouldn't be fair because it's not a murder charge.
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