BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — A Baker County babysitter who was convicted in a baby’s hot car death in November and sentenced to 17 years in prison was granted bond on Monday while she awaits a decision on her appeal of the conviction.

According to a court order, Judge William Slaughter granted 47-year-old Rhonda Jewell a $100,000 bond, saying she’s entitled to be considered for an “appellate/supersedeas bond” under Florida Statute 903.132, and explained that she has “significant community ties,” no prior criminal history before this case and is not a flight risk.

If released on bond, the court order further outlines that Jewell is to surrender her passport to the Baker County Courthouse, wear a GPS monitoring device, abide by a daily curfew and have no unsupervised contact with any child under six years old.

On Nov. 8, 2024, Jewell was found guilty of third-degree felony murder, as well as leaving a child unattended or unsupervised in a motor vehicle causing great bodily injury for the hot car death of 10-month-old Ariya Page. She was found not guilty on an aggravated manslaughter of a child charge.

Jewell was babysitting Ariya on July 19, 2023 when she left her in a hot car for hours on what Ariya’s family said was a 98-degree day. Police said Jewell admitted she forgot the baby in the car while tending to other children, as medical experts testified during her trial that Ariya was “hot to the touch.”

The incident report from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office says that Ariya’s external temperature recorded at 102.1 degrees, her internal temperature reached 110 degrees and the temperature inside the car she was left in read over 133 degrees.

When Jewell was sentenced on Dec. 19, 2024, she read a letter aloud in the courtroom, saying how she wished God would have traded her life for Ariya’s, and expressed how difficult it’s been every day trying to grasp how or why this happened. She said she’s “eternally sorry” and said for the last 17 months, she had felt “buried.”

“You trusted me and I failed,” Jewell said during her sentencing, addressing Ariya’s family.

Brooke Paige, Ariya’s mother, testified during the sentencing, saying Jewell had no remorse for Ariya’s death. She also told the court Jewell had been “enjoying herself” at Florida Gators games while her daughter won’t get that chance. Ariya’s father, Justice Paige, said seeing his daughter getting carried to the hospital under a sheet was the “worst feeling in his life.”