An Ohio mom who left her 16-month-old daughter home alone for 10 days so she could go on vacation was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kristel Candelario, 32, left her house in Cleveland on June 6, leaving behind her tot, Jailyn Candelario.
Candelario traveled to Detroit and Puerto Rico before returning to her house the morning of June 16, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Jailyn was unresponsive when Candelario returned home. She called the police, who declared Jailyn dead at the scene. The toddler was severely dehydrated when she died and was found in a locked playpen on a soiled liner with wet blankets, prosecutors said.
An autopsy determined Jailyn died from dehydration and starvation, according to The Associated Press.
Candelario pleaded guilty on Feb. 22 to one count each of aggravated murder and endangering children.
“Today, we remember Jailyn — a beautiful baby girl who was taken from this world due to her mother’s unimaginable selfishness. The thought of going on vacation for 10 days and leaving your child to starve to death in her Pack-N-Play is a new low in parental care,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a release.
In a statement to the court, Candelario said that “there’s so much pain that I have in regards to the loss of my baby” and that every day she asks “forgiveness from God and from my daughter, Jailyn,” according to AP.