BAKER COUNTY, Fla. – A jury found a Baker County babysitter guilty of third-degree murder and child neglect in the death of a 10-month-old after hearing closing arguments on Friday.
Rhonda Jewell, 46, was accused in the death of 10-month-old Ariya Paige in Baker County in July 2023.
On Thursday, Jewell testified in her own defense as she faced trial on charges of negligent manslaughter, third-degree murder and child neglect.
She was found not guilty of negligent manslaughter.
Investigators said Paige was left unattended in an SUV for five hours on a summer day when the temperature reached over 100 degrees.
Ariya’s parents are breathing a sigh of relief after the verdict.
“I felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt like I finally accomplished something for Ariya. I feel like I did right by her; constantly fighting and never giving up and always pushing forward,” Paige said.
Paige said Ariya’s death took a toll on their family, but they were able to push through for justice.
“From the beginning. I always felt like it was cut and dry and I felt it didn‘t need to go to a trial. It was plain and simple from the beginning,” Justice Paige, Ariya’s father told News4JAX.
Attorney John Phillips represents the Paige family and announced that the criminal conviction against Jewell is just the beginning.
“As of this moment, Rhonda Jewell is a convicted felon and a convicted murderer of Ariya and that’s what’s important. We got through the hard part of the criminal trial, and we are going to file a wrongful death suit,” Phillips announced.
Jewell admitted that when the baby‘s mother, Brooke Paige, came to pick her up, she realized she’d left Ariya in the SUV.
RELATED: The joyful life and tragic death of Baby Ariya
“That‘s when I realized I didn’t get that baby out of the car,” Jewell said through tears on the stand Thursday. “I forgot the baby in the car...and I ran to the car and I opened up the door and she was still there. Ariya was still in the backseat.”
Jewell told the court she started watching children as a babysitter when she was 17 years old but took a break after she had children of her own.
She said she didn’t start babysitting again until 2017 and that she cared for the children she babysat as if they were her own.
“I loved her like she was my own,” Jewell said of her relationship with Ariya.
She said she saw Ariya’s grandmother, Monique Carter, as her best friend and spoke of her relationship with Ariya‘s mother, Brooke.
“I was there for baby showers, weddings. I gravitated to her, just like any baby,” Jewell said.
A detective who arrived at the hospital where Ariya was taken talked about the child’s condition.d
RELATED | ‘Justice for Ariya’: Parents of 10-month-old who died in hot car remember ‘daddy’s girl’
He said she was kept in a climate-controlled environment but despite efforts to cool her body down, Ariya’s internal and external temperature was above 100 degrees.
He said when he interviewed Jewell, she told him she forgot to take Ariya out of the SUV because she was distracted by thoughts regarding a family event.
A medical examiner said the child died from hyperthermia, and a firefighter who testified said the temperature in the SUV was 133 degrees.
In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill named for Ariya declaring April “Hot Car Death Prevention Month.”
Jewell could face up to 15 years in prison on the third-degree murder charge alone.