Fla. Dad Who Left Toddler in Hot Car to Die Went Back to Vehicle to Retrieve Cigarettes But Didn't Notice Girl

Joel Rondon, 33, of Florida, tested positive for alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamines, the sheriff said

A Florida dad has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he and his wife left their 18-month-old daughter in the backseat of a sweltering car after a Fourth of July party in 2023.

In August, Joel Rondon, 33, of Lakeland, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child, a first-degree felony, online court records show. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with credit for time served.

His wife Jazmine Rondon, 33, of Lakeland, was also charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. She pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to return to court in December when a decision will be made on whether she will go to trial, Fox 13 News reports.

"One of the most impressive facts of this case is that you decided to go back to the vehicle to retrieve your cigarettes, and you didn't notice your child there," Judge Jalal Harb told Joel at the sentencing hearing, Fox13 News reports.

At a press conference in July 2023, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd called the incident “one of the most horrible, tragic deaths that we have seen in a long time. And it was all because of negligence and drug use.”

On July 4, 2023, the couple went to a Fourth of July party in Lakeland with their three children, who were 8, 6 and 18-months old, Judd said.

They left the party at 2 a.m., he said. When they arrived home, Jazmine took the two older children into the house, fed them, put them to bed and then went to sleep herself, he said.

She told her husband to “bring the baby into the house,” he said.

Joel proceeded to take some trays of food into the house and noticed that the right rear door of their Hyundai Elantra was open, Judd said.

When he came back outside, he saw that the door was closed. “He thought Jazmine must have gotten the child so he went inside,” Judd said.

“Neither husband nor wife asked each other if they had brought the victim inside,” Judd said in a news release.

Joel went to sleep at about 3 a.m. and woke up at 10 a.m. to get ready for work. At about 11 a.m., “he looks at the 8-year-old and said, ‘Where is the baby?'” said Judd.

Joel raced to the car, where he found his baby daughter in the car under the full sun, still strapped in the child carrier. “The heat index was 105 degrees,” Judd said.

The couple rushed the toddler to a local hospital.

“Even though it was painfully evident that this child suffered an absolutely torturous death, Lakeland Regional still worked on the baby to try to save its life,” Judd said.

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The toddler was declared dead at 2:42 p.m., with an internal body temperature of 104.4 degrees, the sheriff said in the release. “This rips your heart out,” he said.

Police launched an investigation. The couple tested positive for alcohol and drugs, Judd alleged.

“Seventeen hours after arriving home from the party, Jazmine tests positive for alcohol and marijuana,” Judd alleged. “Joel tests positive for alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamines, seventeen hours later, so you can imagine what kind of shape they were in when they arrived from this party and left this child harnessed in the baby seat in the back of the car.”

An autopsy determined that the victim’s cause of death was hyperthermia due to being left in a hot car, and the manner of death was homicide. Joel and Jazmine were taken into custody on July 6, 2023, and booked into the Polk County Jail.

The couple’s attorneys did not respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.