A 32-year-old mother in Ohio, US will spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her 16-month-old daughter, who died of starvation and dehydration after being left home alone for more than a week while the mother went on vacation in Puerto Rico.
Kristel Candelario on Monday, was ordered by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Brendan J. Sheehan to serve a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in the 2023 death of young Jailyn Candelario.
Candelario last month formally pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder and one count of endangering the life of a child in her daughter’s death.
Sheehan said that he was sentencing Candelario to die in a prison, just like she did to her daughter, but said the only difference is that in Candelario’s case, the prison ‘will at least feed you and give you liquids, which you denied her.’
The sentence came after emotional testimony from several of the individuals involved in the investigation into Jailyn’s death.
Dr. Elizabeth Mooney, the forensic pathologist and deputy county medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Jailyn, addressed the court Monday morning, describing Jailyn’s death as one of the ‘most tragic and unfortunate cases’ of her career.
Mooney said that when Jailyn was brought in to the medical examiner’s office, she weighed only 13 pounds, which meant the toddler had lost more than seven pounds since her previous doctor’s appointment less than two months earlier.
‘The eyes were sunken and she had temporal wasting in her face,’ Mooney recalled. She also noted that Jailyn had ‘an abundance’ of fecal matter on her hands, feet, and in her mouth, and caked to her teeth, indicating that the famished child ingested her own waste.
The cause of death was determined to be ‘starvation and severe dehydration due to pediatric neglect,’ Mooney said.
