POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Following an evening of celebrating the Fourth of July holiday, a toddler was left in a hot car overnight and later died in Lakeland, Florida, officials say. Her parents were later arrested.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office said Joel Rondon, 33, and Jazmine Rondon, 33, were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after their 18-month-old child was left in a hot car overnight, strapped into a car seat.
The couple was celebrating the Fourth of July in Lakeland with their three children and didn’t come back to their house until around 3 a.m. on July 5, the sheriff’s office said, according to WFTV.
The couple started to get their children into the house when deputies said, according to the news outlet, that Jazmine Rondon reportedly told her husband to take the 18-month-old in as she took in the other two.
Joel Rondon said he saw that one of the car doors was open so he took more stuff into the house from the car. He said all of the doors were closed when he went back out so he assumed that his wife took the toddler inside after all, the sheriff’s office. He went back inside and went to bed with his wife.
Around 10 a.m. Wednesday, Joel Rondon woke up and asked the other two children to check on the toddler, the sheriff’s office said. The children told him that the baby wasn’t in her room.
Joel Rondon reportedly went looking around the house for the toddler and went outside. He found her in her car seat which was parked fully in the sun, WFTV reported.
Both parents took the toddler to the hospital but she was pronounced dead around 3 p.m. The sheriff’s office said that the girl’s body temperature was 104.4 degrees internally when she died. The hospital then notified the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office had Joel Rondon and Jazmine Rondon drug-screened by the Department of Children and Families that evening. Joel Rondon reportedly tested positive for methamphetamine., marijuana, and alcohol. Jazmine Rondon tested positive for marijuana and alcohol.
The toddler’s autopsy found that her cause of death was hyperthermia due to being left in the car and the manner of death was ruled homicide, the sheriff’s office said.
Joel Rondon and Jazmine Rondon were arrested on Thursday, the sheriff’s office said. Both were charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. Joel Rondon has a prior criminal history that includes arrests for attempted murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, WFTV reported.
The couple’s two other children have been placed into the custody of relatives, the sheriff’s office said according to the news outlet.
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