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Mom who went on 10-day beach vacay as tot starved to death in playpen calmly lies to cops, blames girl for not eating in newly revealed video
Kristel Candelario was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
nypost.com
Mom who left tot to die alone in playpen as she went on 10-day Puerto Rico vacation calmly lies to cops, blames girl for not eating in newly revealed video
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Published March 21, 2024, 9:55 a.m. ET
The despicable mom who left her 16-month-old daughter to starve to death in a filthy playpen while she jetted off on a 10-day beach vacation was seen in a chilling bodycam video callously lying to cops that her tot died while refusing to eat.
Kristel Candelario, 32, who this week was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, falsely claimed to police that she had been with daughter Jailyn last June — when she’d actually jetted to Detroit and Puerto Rico, taking smiling pics on the beach as her daughter died while home alone in Ohio.
The mom showed little emotion as she blamed her daughter starving to death on the tot refusing to eat.
6 Kristel Candelario, 32, is seen in a chilling body camera video lying to a police officer about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death in June 2023. Law&Crime Network
6 When Candelario returned 10 days later, she found Jailyn not breathing and called 911. WKYC
“She was with no food, just with the milk… she was refusing, maybe because she didn’t eat two days before,” Candelario said before shrugging her shoulders, as seen in video first obtained by Law&Crime.
“But that’s why it was scary, because I say, ‘Oh my God, we need to go to the hospital because she doesn’t eat anything,”‘ she continued.
Candelario casually said that her daughter, who typically slept 12 hours a night, never woke up on the morning of June 16.
The officer interrupted the mom to ask what happened the night before, to which the mom lied and claimed she’d been taking a shower when she heard her daughter suddenly scream.
“I don’t know, probably she get in pain, maybe,” she said. “I pick her up this morning and she look really, like dry.”
At her sentencing Monday, County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan said Candelario committed “the ultimate betrayal” by leaving her daughter to starve.
6 Kristel Candelario, 32, will spend the rest of her life in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated murder in the starvation death of her 16-month-old daughter. FOX 59
“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,” said the judge. “The only difference will be, the prison will at least feed you and give you liquid that you denied her.”
Candelario left her toddler alone in their Cleveland home so she could travel on her own. It was never made clear why she had not asked anyone to look after Jailyn in her absence.
“The time that is enjoyed is the true time lived,” Candelario callously wrote in a caption accompanying a photo of her on a Puerto Rico beach.
6 Candelario, 32, committed “the ultimate betrayal” by abandoning her daughter without food or water last summer while traveling to Detroit and Puerto Rico, according to court documents. Kristel Candelario/Facebook
6 “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,” Candelario said. Kristel Candelario/Facebook
When she came home 10 days later, Canderlaio found an emaciated Jailyn not breathing in her Pack-N-Play, which “consisted of soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and feces,” an affidavit stated.
An autopsy found that Jailyn had died of starvation and severe dehydration.
Candelario pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder and child endangerment in a case that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley described as “truly unimaginable.”
6 Candelario pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder and child endangerment as part of a plea deal dropping two additional murder counts and a felonious assault charge. FOX 59
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Candelario, who claimed to have struggled with depression and other mental health issues, said in court on Monday she has prayed daily or forgiveness.
“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.