An 18-month-old Florida girl was “baked to death” after her parents left the toddler in a car overnight in 105-degree heat following a July 4 party where they smoked marijuana and drank alcohol, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
“Joel and Jazmine Rondon, both 33, from Lakeland, have been arrested on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child in what Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described as their daughter’s ‘torturous’ hot-car death, which he blamed on ‘negligence and drug use,”’ the New York Post reported.
The couple attended a party on Tuesday with their three children, who are all under the age of nine. They stayed out until nearly 3:00 a.m., according to law enforcement.
Detectives said both parents drank alcohol and smoked marijuana at the party, and accused Joel of also using meth.
When they got back to their home early Wednesday morning, Jazmine allegedly told Joel to bring their 18-month-old daughter inside while she tended to the other children, ages 6 and 8, Sheriff Judd said at a press conference.
CBS 12 reported that Joel told investigators one of the car doors was open at the time.
“He brought trays of food inside the house, and when he went back outside, he saw that all four doors to their Hyundai Elantra were closed and assumed his wife had already brought the toddler inside herself,” according to the report. “Joel and Jazmine later went to bed, with neither spouse asking the other about their young daughter’s whereabouts before falling asleep.”
Joel allegedly woke up at 10 a.m. and got ready for work. By 11 a.m., he reportedly asked his eldest child to “check on the baby” in the bedroom, but she was not there.
Joel then reportedly searched the house but could not find her. He then went out to the car “parked in the driveway beneath the blazing sun” where he found her unresponsive in her car seat in the back seat, the sheriff said.
“It is brutally hot for everyone under the best of circumstances and then this child is shut in the car, obviously with no movement of air, with it becoming hotter and hotter and hotter as the morning went on,” Judd said.
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After finding the little girl, Joel woke up his wife and they rushed the toddler to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center.
Judd said at that point it became apparent the child “suffered a torturous death.” Judd said that hours after the toddler was removed from the car, her internal body temperature still measured 104.4 degrees. The autopsy revealed that she died from hyperthermia from being left in the car, and her manner of death was ruled a homicide, according to the report.
Both parents later tested positive for alcohol and marijuana, and Joel additionally tested positive for methamphetamine, according to law enforcement.
Both Jazmine and Joel were booked into the county jail on Thursday. Sheriff Judd said the parents appeared to be remorseful and admitted to partying, drinking, and doing drugs.
“I think the real remorse will be tonight when they’re sitting in the county jail, in an air-conditioned environment, thinking, ‘It’s nice and cool here, when my baby baked to death because of my negligence and my use of drugs,’” Judd said.
Joel has a criminal record dating back to 2003, the Post found. His criminal history includes various charges, including resisting arrest, criminal mischief, aggravated assault, and attempted murder.
He was more recently arrested in February of this year on a warrant for carrying a concealed weapon and possession of meth and drug paraphernalia, the report states.
The couple’s two other children are staying with family, officials said.
