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A Florida woman who left a 2-year-old child in a hot car before the toddler's death 'got distracted,' she told police

Joshua Zitser   

A Florida woman who left a 2-year-old child in a hot car before the toddler's death 'got distracted,' she told police
  • A Florida woman was paid to take a 2-year-old to a day care facility in Miami.
  • She "got distracted" and left the child in her car for about seven hours, according to police.
  • The child died, and Perez-Domingo is now charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child.

A Florida woman is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after she left a 2-year-old in a hot car, leading to the toddler's death, according to Miami-Dade police.

Juana Perez-Domingo had been hired to take children around South Miami-Dade, a police report said. On Friday, she had been paid to take a 2-year-old child, identified as Jocelyn Maritza Mendez, to a day care facility.

In the early hours of the morning, the police report continued, Perez-Domingo strapped in the toddler with a seat belt but no car seat. Perez-Domingo said that she then "got distracted" and went into her home, returning to the van seven hours later, the Miami Herald reported.

Temperatures reached 91 degrees Fahrenheit in Miami on Friday, according to AccuWeather.

When she returned to the car in the afternoon, Mendez appeared lifeless. Instead of calling emergency services, the police report said, she phoned the child's mother and told her that her toddler had died. She then took the toddler's body to the mother's home, police said.

The woman had no driver's license and her transportation services were off the books, according to a police report seen by the Miami Herald.

Perez-Domingo, 43, was booked into jail on Saturday morning, the Miami Herald reported.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, a car left in the sun can heat up 20 degrees above the outside temperature in 10 minutes.

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