Babysitter gets 17 years for infant’s death in hot car

A Baker County babysitter has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in the death of a 10-month girl she left in a hot car.

Rhonda Jewell, 46, of Sanderson, was sentenced Thursday after a jury found her guilty of third-degree murder and leaving a child unattended.

The jury found her not guilty of negligent manslaughter.

In July 2023, with outside temperatures in the high 90s, Jewell left Ariya Page alone for five hours in Jewell’s SUV in Macclenny. Temperatures inside the SUV reached 133 degrees, according to the Baker County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators said Jewell, who had babysat the child before, had picked her up from the mother’s home at 8 a.m. that day. Jewell drove to another home in south Macclenny to babysit three other children but did not take Ariya inside, the arrest report said. She told deputies she forgot about the baby in her vehicle.

Jewell testified at her trial this month, admitting that she realized she had left the baby in her SUV when Ariya‘s mother came to pick her up just after 1 p.m., according to a report from News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.

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Deputies called to the scene began life-saving measures, but the child was declared dead at a hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Prosecutors had recommended a 20-year sentence. Jewell’s attorney read several letters during her sentencing hearing from people asking the judge to hand down less. They said she was haunted by what happened, News4Jax reported.

Jewell also read a tearful apology to Ariya’s family. But a statement from Ariya’s mother said the image of her daughter “will never get out of my head.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in April named for Ariya, declaring April as Hot Car Death Prevention Month.