Althouse: "You committed the ultimate act of betrayal, leaving your baby terrified, alone, unprotected, to suffer what I’ve heard was the most gruesome death imaginable, with no food, no water, no protection."

March 20, 2024

"You committed the ultimate act of betrayal, leaving your baby terrified, alone, unprotected, to suffer what I’ve heard was the most gruesome death imaginable, with no food, no water, no protection."

Said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan, quoted in "Mother who left baby at home for 10-day vacation gets life for murder " (WaPo).

The woman, Kristel Candelario, 32, left her 16-month-old daughter "alone in a playpen... while she traveled to Detroit and Puerto Rico."

61 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Drugs are a many evil thing.; 3/20/24, 9:04 AM
n.n said...: Thw progressive path of Planned Parenthood for resolving life's mysteries and "burdens".; 3/20/24, 9:06 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Omg. This is truly unpardonable.; 3/20/24, 9:15 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Comments here should be respectful. A baby suffered and died.

I can see that people want to say something about abortion, but I'm not accepting cheeky quips. And I don't want comments about moderation. If you want to speak to that, go back to the last open thread (or wait for the next one).; 3/20/24, 9:16 AM
Aggie said...: Almost justice, but certainly justified. There can be so excuse when so many would have been happy to step in.; 3/20/24, 9:17 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: This is horrific.
I have no sympathy for the 'mother'. She had no sympathy for her child.; 3/20/24, 9:18 AM
Ice Nine said...: What this creature did is supremely counter-instinctual. It is something that would not occur to even a mother rat or mother cockroach.; 3/20/24, 9:26 AM
Lyssa said...: Jesus.

When my son was an infant, I remember thinking what if somehow something were to happen to both me and my husband, and he would just lie in his crib and cry, and cry, and cry until he eventually starved. It was one of those paranoias that (even with newborn brain) you know is irrational, but once you get it in your head it’s hard to stop thinking about the horror of it. That someone could let that happen is just beyond words.; 3/20/24, 9:28 AM
Whiskeybum said...: Couldn’t read the WaPo article - tried another source, but it never got to what the mother’s reasoning was for leaving her child in a situation where she absolutely must have known it would die. What was her excuse for her behavior? I see mentions of depression - could she not have left the baby in someone else’s care because she was depressed?; 3/20/24, 9:28 AM
Kate said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/20/24, 9:29 AM
Larry J said...: Stories like this make me weep for our future. An innocent child suffered and died horribly. Life in prison is too kind a punishment, but it's probably the most the judge could give.; 3/20/24, 9:30 AM
Jake said...: This is so very sad. Her life in prison should be confined to a box without food or water.; 3/20/24, 9:34 AM
Big Mike said...: A baby suffered and died.

I found the case reported in an article in the New York Post that is not behind a paywall. I urge other commentators to give it a pass. The Post has pictures of the beautiful child from happier times before it was left to slowly die. Poor little thing. I have a 19 month old granddaughter so I know how wonderful little children that age can be. Unless the mother is mentally diminished I could favor relaxing the 8th Amendment for this case.; 3/20/24, 9:34 AM
narciso said...: no it's about callous indifference, how does one end up with no soul, no instinct to love ones baby,

is a life sentence too strong, for this level of negligence,; 3/20/24, 9:37 AM
Leland said...: Fine then, life for murder is a reasonable indictment for a woman who sacrificed a life for her whims. I have no sympathy for her nor respect that have such little value for human life. Offer the child to someone else’s care if they are too much a burden.; 3/20/24, 9:40 AM
Owen said...: Horrifying. Is there some (faint) redemptive value in publicizing this horror --so that others, still possessed of conscience and empathy, will feel more deeply and understand more completely what evil looks like, and seek to avoid and prevent it?; 3/20/24, 9:47 AM
MadisonMan said...: Where were the neighbors, or even the friends of the mother who was traveling without her kid. Did anyone ask "Where's the little one?"
I would feel horrific guilt if I had a neighbor who left their kid behind, and I didn't realize what was going on.; 3/20/24, 9:49 AM
Immanuel Rant said...: My God. Words are empty things to describe the depths of this kind of evil.; 3/20/24, 9:52 AM
Birches said...: Yeah posting best life pictures are going to get you life in prison. And to come home and call the police? It's like she never understood consequences. Bizarre and horrible.; 3/20/24, 9:55 AM
FullMoon said...: Mental illness. But, was she well enough to actually plan a vacation? Did she drive, or book flights? Was she alone? Pre planned, or spontaneous.
Quick search brings up stories about need for treatment of mental illness, and the judges reaction, but not much detail of what the mom was doing on vacation.; 3/20/24, 10:05 AM
Iman said...: Hard to process, so counter-instinctual. RIP, young one and may God have mercy on this sad woman’s soul.; 3/20/24, 10:10 AM
Iman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/20/24, 10:10 AM
FullMoon said...: Neighbors told NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland that Candelario had asked them to take care of Jailyn in the past and didn't understand why she hadn't reached out for their help again.; 3/20/24, 10:17 AM
tim maguire said...: How did this happen? She had to know when she left that her baby would die while she was gone and, given the expense of the vacation, it's hard to believe she was too incompetent to anticipate the situation she was creating, not just for the baby, but for her too.

Life imprisonment seems like the minimum, but nothing we can do would feel anything like justice.; 3/20/24, 10:21 AM
Dude1394 said...: The cheapening of life continues.; 3/20/24, 10:22 AM
FullMoon said...: A neighbor said this isn't the first time she left the baby home alone.

"We keep telling her not to leave her by herself, not just me, my friend across the street too, but she always leave her by herself," the neighbor said.; 3/20/24, 10:25 AM
Jake said...: "What this creature did is supremely counter-instinctual. It is something that would not occur to even a mother rat or mother cockroach."

I think wild animals abandon offspring on the regular actually. I rescued a cat that had been abandoned when it couldn't get out of a window well. She was clearly the runt of the litter (she's still undersized) and her mother (and siblings) DGAF.; 3/20/24, 10:26 AM
Dave Begley said...: Good sentence. Good judge.; 3/20/24, 10:33 AM
Dave Begley said...: These horrible criminal cases affect the judges.

There was a Nebraska district court judge who was a public defender. Before he sentenced some of the worst criminals, he vomited in his private bathroom in the Douglas County courthouse.; 3/20/24, 10:35 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This is the third post of the day where I find myself comparing the entitled thinking of a woman in the west with the desperate mother in Afghanistan who sold a kidney to save her child.; 3/20/24, 10:43 AM
wendybar said...: I just CAN'T imagine even leaving a 16 month old alone for 1 hour, never mind 10 days.

This was evil. How could she even DARE to have a good time whilst her baby was home suffering?; 3/20/24, 10:45 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: What would a proportionate response be for this woman's actions. Life in prison (with no doubt early parole) gives her three hots and a cot for so long as she stays in the Gray Bar Hotel. Is there a desert island where she could be sentenced? That's too imaginative for courts today---; 3/20/24, 10:48 AM
Temujin said...: This is one of those stories that makes me think, "I hate people."

For this I drag out the oldie, but goodie. you need a license to fish...; 3/20/24, 10:51 AM
gilbar said...: fetus was only at 55 months development.. Didn't the woman have A RIGHT TO CHOOSE TO TERMINATE?

Sure... Leaving the 55 month fetus alone in a crib with a bottle of formula SOUNDS horrific..
But; compare it to smashing its head with forceps, and chopping it up and out?

DOES A WOMAN HAVE A RIGHT TO CHOOSE TO TERMINATE? OR NOT??; 3/20/24, 10:59 AM
Night Owl said...: What a horrible story. I can't argue with the sentence the mother got.

But did none of the neighbors hear that baby crying over those many days? Video showed small houses close together. Someone should have heard that baby crying. I hope this terrible story will encourage people to get involved to save a life when they can.; 3/20/24, 11:08 AM
tolkein said...: But did none of the neighbors hear that baby crying over those many days? Video showed small houses close together. Someone should have heard that baby crying. I hope this terrible story will encourage people to get involved to save a life when they can.

Probably stopped crying after a while.

I can't believe a mother would do something so evil.; 3/20/24, 11:17 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Good example of why we should have the death penalty.; 3/20/24, 11:19 AM
Mack Mariani said...: Whenever I hear about a case like this, I can't help but think about the narrative surrounding the Terry Schiavo case where medical experts were rolled out to tell the public how painless it was to die by starvation. Whether the media, the experts or the interests that were behind the push -- or the public for believing it -- are to blame, I'll leave to others to decide.; 3/20/24, 11:23 AM
Ice Nine said...: >Jake said...
I think wild animals abandon offspring on the regular actually. I rescued a cat that had been abandoned when it couldn't get out of a window well. She was clearly the runt of the litter (she's still undersized) and her mother (and siblings) DGAF.<

Yeah, that derelict mother cat should have gotten a ladder. Duh. She just DGAF.; 3/20/24, 11:26 AM
Mary Beth said...: Video showed small houses close together. Someone should have heard that baby crying.

Especially since the neighbors knew she had left the child alone before. It's also possible that the child had been neglected so much that she had stopped crying because it didn't have any results. As depressing as it is to think of a child crying, and no help coming, it's even more depressing to think of a child who had given up so much that she no longer cried.

Are women in prison as punitive towards prisoners who have mistreated children as male prisoners are reputed to be? I'm not wishing physical harm to her, but I think shunning and isolation from others would be deserved.; 3/20/24, 11:37 AM
Joe Smith said...: Life is cheap because it's not valued.

It's not taught to be valued.

You can no longer teach the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Very few people go to church anymore.

Gangs are allowed to loot, riot, and kill with zero consequences as long as it serves a political purpose.

We are far worse off as a country than we were 60 or 70 years ago. The golden age of America was pre-Vietnam War before the hippies and the left began their long march toward an America socialist paradise.

Even blacks had it so much better other than pockets of the Democratic South. Black couples were married and worked blue collar jobs.

It's like a fantasy world that we can't even imagine now, except it was real.; 3/20/24, 12:04 PM
Tom T. said...: No mention of the baby's father.; 3/20/24, 12:30 PM
PM said...: Wish I could unread that.; 3/20/24, 1:32 PM
wishfulthinking said...: I have no words that I would ever want to print to describe what I think about about that so-called mother.

As for that little child, RIP sweet baby girl.; 3/20/24, 1:32 PM
Enigma said...: Horrible yes, surprising no. There's mental illness, there's survival, and there are social dysfunctions that leave some offspring without a future. This case might reflect illness or a social issue.

The mother may have done this intentionally, wanting the child to die but to avoid being a hands-on killer. Women are known to abandon children when they have limited resources to survive themselves, or especially, when their provider (i.e., her current man) is not the father of a child. Ancient Roman prostitutes (or brothel owners) broke the necks of male newborns but kept the girls as future commercial assets.

Female animals do abandon their offspring, they force babies out of the nest or off the teat whether they are thriving or struggling, and they even eat their young. I've literally seen a house cat eat her newborn kittens. Male animals will also kill the offspring of a female mate if fathered by a prior partner.

Nature is red in tooth and claw.; 3/20/24, 2:19 PM
RMc said...: It's one thing to abandon your baby...but abandon your baby to go to Detroit...?!; 3/20/24, 2:49 PM
Oligonicella said...: Ice Nine:
It is something that would not occur to even a mother rat or mother cockroach.

I recognize the sentiment but you are wrong with both references. Then again, they're vermin. That is why I view this mother on exactly the same level as a sewer rat or roach.

narciso:
is a life sentence too strong, for this level of negligence,

It is not strong enough.

This is a case where the direction of one's empathy is made clearly visible. If she was smart enough to travel and have fun, with all that entails, she certainly knew leaving an infant alone was consigning it to death.

I wonder who she will blame to absolve herself because they didn't pick up her slack.; 3/20/24, 4:58 PM
Rusty said...: Women like her don't last long in prison.; 3/20/24, 5:11 PM
Linda said...: I just don't understand
I do understand
but I just don't want to understand
truly -- it is unimaginable.

There is NO excuse. Thankfully sometimes, the justice system does exactly what it is designed to do. I pray for the young child and her sister.

I never liked the slogan / saying "see something - say something" - and I know it has to do with terrorism - but I would be second guessing myself if I were a neighbor.

We, as a society, really have to start taking mental illness seriously. NOT everyone can handle life in the real world.; 3/20/24, 6:08 PM
gspencer said...: "Comments here should be respectful. A baby suffered and died."

And in an abortion, a baby first suffers then dies.; 3/20/24, 6:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: This is a prime case for termination of parental rights and good foster parents that eventually adopt the girl.

But throwing her away is evil.

Who and where was the father? Fathers tend to want to protect their children. Was he also a drugged out shell of a human?; 3/20/24, 7:03 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Death penalty would be better.; 3/20/24, 8:43 PM
Narayanan said...: what if this absconding woman was expecting kindness of neighbors to care for baby but this time they did not?

no one called social services?; 3/20/24, 9:54 PM
Big Mike said...: What would a proportionate response be for this woman's actions.

In 1210 a noblewoman named Maud de Brsose got on the wrong side of King John of England (yes, that King John). She was walled up in the dungeon of Corfu Castle and denied water and food until she died. This seems appropriate for Kristel Candelario for what she did to her lovely little daughter Jailyn. As I said upthread, sometimes we need to ignore the Eighth Amendment.; 3/20/24, 10:28 PM
wendybar said...: My 86 year old mother said eye for an eye about this case. She agrees with Big Mike. Kristel did this. Posted pictures of her fun in the sun. Her punishment should be the same as what she did to her daughter.; 3/21/24, 3:56 AM
Big Mike said...: Minor correction. It was Corfe Castle. I was using my iPhone and missed what AutoCorrect did to my text.; 3/21/24, 6:12 AM
Michael E. Lopez said...: "In 1210 a noblewoman named Maud de Brsose got on the wrong side of King John of England (yes, that King John). She was walled up in the dungeon of Corfu Castle and denied water and food until she died. This seems appropriate for Kristel Candelario for what she did to her lovely little daughter Jailyn. As I said upthread, sometimes we need to ignore the Eighth Amendment. "

Well we can't do that. BUT....

It's arguably not cruel if it's just.

And it's arguably not unusual if there's *precedent*.; 3/21/24, 6:33 AM
Tina Trent said...: If she's put on death row, her last meal will be weepingly recorded by journalists like the ones in Atlanta sniveling today over the execution of Willie Pye, who kidnapped a woman, leaving her infant alone, then with two other men gang raped her to death.

Her last meal was rapist sperm and pubic hair.; 3/21/24, 8:03 AM
Rusty said...: Tina Trent said...
"If she's put on death row,"
Her fellow inmates will take care of it long before that.; 3/21/24, 10:54 AM
Rusty said...: Tina Trent said...
"If she's put on death row,"
Her fellow inmates will take care of it long before that.; 3/21/24, 10:54 AM
TestTube said...: Don Marquis presents a contrasting point of view:

http://donmarquis.com/reading-room/kittens/; 3/21/24, 12:11 PM