BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — A Baker County babysitter was found guilty Friday of third-degree felony murder and leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle in the hot car death of a 10-month-old girl in 2023.
Rhonda Jewell, 47, was arrested on aggravated manslaughter of a child on July 20, 2023, in the death of Ariya Page. Investigators with the Baker County Sheriff's Office said Jewell didn't realize Ariya was missing for at least five hours.
Jewell was also found not guilty on a aggravated manslaughter charge.
Thursday morning, medical experts testified that the child's body was "hot to the touch" when she was found on the 96-degree day. Police said Ariya's external temperature recorded at 102.1 degrees, her internal temperature reached 110 degrees and the temperature inside the car read over 133 degrees.
Meanwhile, the defense on Thursday argued what Jewell did wasn't a conscious choice, but the state said Paige was in Jewell's care and is ultimately responsible.
Jewell's arrest report states that she was supposed to be babysitting Ariya along with three other children. It also says Jewell had been babysitting the baby girl "off and on since June [2023]."
When First Coast News sat down with the grandparents and uncle of Ariya two months after her death, her grandmother Pam Paige said: "There was one of the EMT’s on the gurney and she was giving Ariya CPR, but she was crying. As a medical professional myself, I knew that wasn’t a good sign."
Paige also recalled the moment in the hospital when the announcement of her granddaughter's death was made.
"They called us in to talk to the doctor, and the doctor came out with a grim look on his face," she said. "And he just said, 'She's dead.'"
On Friday, closing arguments began in Jewell's trial and the jury returned with a verdict around 6 p.m.
