BAKER COUNTY, Florida. – A Baker County jury will hear closing arguments Friday in the trial of a babysitter accused in the death of a 10-month-old child in a hot car.

Rhonda Jewell, 46, is charged in the death by Ariya Paige, 10 months in Baker County in July 2023.

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On Thursday, Jewell testified in her own defense as she faces trial on charges of negligent homicide and child neglect.

Investigators said Paige was left unattended in an SUV for five hours on a summer day when the temperature reached over 100 degrees.

Jewell admitted that when the baby’s mother, Brooke Paige, came to pick her up, she realized she had left Ariya in the SUV.

RELATED: The joyful life and tragic death of baby Ariya

“That’s when I realized I didn’t get that baby out of the car,” Jewell said through tears on the stand Thursday. “I forgot the baby in the car…and I ran to the car and opened the door and she was still there. Ariya was still in the back seat.

Jewell told the court she started looking after children as a babysitter when she was 17, but took a break after having children of her own.

She said she only started babysitting again in 2017 and looked after the children she looked after as if they were her own.

“I loved her like she was my own,” Jewell said of his relationship with Ariya.

She said she considered Ariya’s grandmother, Monique Carter, to be her best friend and opened up about her relationship with Ariya’s mother, Brooke.

“I was there for baby showers, weddings. I’m attracted to her, like any baby,” Jewell said.

A detective who arrived at the hospital where Ariya was taken spoke about the child’s condition.

RELATED | “Justice for Ariya”: parents of 10-month-old child who died in hot car remember “daddy’s girl”

He said she was kept in an air-conditioned environment but despite efforts to cool her body, Ariya’s internal and external temperatures were over 100 degrees.

He said that when he interviewed Jewell, she told him she forgot to take Ariya out of the SUV because she was distracted by thoughts about a family event.

A medical examiner said the child died of hyperthermia, and a firefighter who testified said the temperature in the SUV was 133 degrees.

In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill named after Ariya. declaring April “Hot Vehicle Fatality Prevention Month.”