Florida appeals court overturns murder conviction in hot car baby death

A Florida appeals court reversed a felony murder conviction against a babysitter who accidentally left a 10-month-old in a hot car. Rhonda Jewell had been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Florida court throws out murder conviction in accidental hot car death case

A Florida state appeals court has reversed the felony murder conviction of Rhonda Jewell, 46, who in 2023 accidentally left a 10-month-old baby in a hot car, resulting in the child's death, theguardian.com reports.

In July 2023, Jewell was babysitting four children from two different families when she forgot that 10-month-old Ariya Paige was still in the back seat of her car. She went inside to care for the other children. Ariya, strapped into her car seat in the Florida summer heat, died of hyperthermia before Jewell realised what had happened.

Jewell was subsequently convicted of third-degree felony murder — predicated on the underlying felony of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle — and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

On Wednesday, Florida's First District Court of Appeal reversed both convictions: the felony murder charge and the charge of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. The court found that both offences required proof that Jewell had knowingly left Ariya in the car — a threshold the prosecution had not met.

"Third-degree felony murder cannot be based on an unenumerated predicate felony that does not require any proof of intent," the court wrote in its opinion. "This case highlights how imperfect our criminal justice system is to adjudicate an accidental death. There are no winners here; moral outrage is not assuaged. And beneath the tragedy, the issues are legally important."

Christine Monta of the MacArthur Justice Center, one of the lawyers who represented Jewell on appeal, said in a statement: "Tragic accidents are not the equivalent of murder, and the court rightly recognised that Ms Jewell should not be criminally punished for an act that the State of Florida did not — and cannot — prove was knowingly and consciously done."

A rare application of felony murder doctrine

The case drew attention for its unusually aggressive use of the felony murder doctrine — a broad legal theory under which any person involved in a felony that leads to a death can be held criminally responsible for that death. Nearly every US state, as well as the federal government, maintains some form of the rule.

Caitlin Glass, an instructor at Boston University School of Law who co-authored an amicus brief in support of Jewell, told HuffPost: "This really takes tragic accidents and elevates them to murder offences."

At trial, jurors were told they did not need to find evidence that Jewell intended to commit the underlying felony — or even that she knew it was happening — in order to convict her of third-degree felony murder. Jurors did, however, acquit Jewell of aggravated manslaughter, the only charge that explicitly required a finding of reckless disregard for the baby's life.

Amber Rollins, executive director of Kids and Car Safety, told HuffPost she was aware of fewer than ten cases in the US in which a responsible adult had been charged with felony murder after accidentally leaving a child in a hot car.

More than 650 children have died in hot cars since 1990

According to Kids and Car Safety, more than 650 children in the United States have died after being accidentally left in hot cars since 1990 — a period that coincides with the widespread introduction of airbags, which prompted caregivers to place young children in rear-facing seats in the back. Deaths typically follow a recognisable pattern: the caregiver is stressed, exhausted, or distracted; the baby is asleep and out of sight.

Whether such deaths are treated as tragic accidents or prosecuted as crimes varies considerably. Felony murder charges in these cases remain, by all accounts, exceedingly rare.

Jewell: 'I just have so much guilt'

Jewell, who was close friends with Ariya's family, has spoken publicly about the psychological toll of the incident. "I feel guilty if I laugh or smile. I just have so much guilt from that day," she told HuffPost. "I don't know how it happened. I just go over and replay it in my head."

She had struggled with depression, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts following Ariya's death.

Case remanded for new trial

The appellate court ordered the case remanded to the trial court for a new trial. Baker County State Attorney Brian Kramer deferred to the attorney general's office, which did not respond to a request for comment. An attorney representing Ariya's family in a related civil suit also did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)