A Miami-Dade woman charged with aggravated murder was sentenced to five years in prison for the death of a 2-year-old girl found dead in a car in Homestead in 2021.
Juana Pérez-Domingo, 44, pleaded guilty on Monday to the death of Jocelyn Maritza Méndez, the 2-year-old girl she took to kindergarten every day.
The Miami-Dade State’s Attorney’s Office offered Perez-Domingo a guilty plea, which the woman accepted and which leaves her with five years in prison, followed by five years of probation.
“If you go to trial in this case and are found guilty, ma’am, you could face a minimum sentence of 13 years in state prison,” a judge told her during the hearing on Monday. at Miami.
According to police, Pérez-Méndez was supposed to take the girl to daycare, but left her in the car for about seven hours.
The woman said she took the girl home because the nursery was not open yet, but once there she got distracted and forgot about the girl. And it wasn’t until he returned to the vehicle seven hours later that he realized his mistake.