A 32-year-old woman in the United States has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of her 16-month-old daughter, who prosecutors say was left home alone for 10 days while her mother vacationed. According to Fox News, the woman, identified as Kristel Candelario, pleaded guilty last month to one count of aggravated murder and one count of endangering children. She committed the “ultimate betrayal” by abandoning her daughter Jailyn without food or water last summer so she could vacation in Detroit and Puerto Rico, a judge told her on Monday.
“Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom,” County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan told the mother. “The only difference will be, the prison will at least feed you and give you liquid that you denied her,” the judge added.
According to the prosecutors, last year in June, Candelario left her daughter “alone and unattended” at her home in Cleveland and did not return until 10 days later. “Upon returning, Candelario found Jailyn unresponsive and called the police. The Cleveland Division of Police and the Cleveland Division of Fire responded to the scene and Jailyn was pronounced deceased,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, as per Fox News.
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“An investigation conducted by CPD’s Homicide Unit revealed that Candelario left her child alone and unattended from June 6 to June 16 to vacation in Detroit, Michigan, and in Puerto Rico. Jailyn was extremely dehydrated at the time of death,” the office added.
“Jailyn was discovered in a Pack-N-Play pen on a liner soiled with urine and feces with soiled blankets,” the statement read.
The mother, on the other hand, claims to have struggled with depression and other mental health issues. When given a chance to speak, she said that she has prayed daily for forgiveness. “There’s so much pain that I have in regards to the loss of my baby, Jailyn,” she said in court. “I’m extremely hurt about everything that happened. I am not trying to justify my actions, but nobody knew how much I was suffering and what I was going through,” she said. “God and my daughter have forgiven me,” she claimed.