Law360 (September 30, 2026, 8:09 PM EDT) -- A Florida state appeals court Wednesday ruled that a nanny convicted of felony murder after forgetting she left a 10-month-old inside a hot car should be tried again, saying prosecutors used an improper underlying charge as a basis for the felony murder charge.

A three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Rhonda Charmane Jewell, finding the state incorrectly secured a felony murder conviction by charging Jewell with an underlying felony that did not require it to prove her intent during the crime.

"And to be clear, it was a fallacy to charge appellant with third-degree felony murder based on what the state believed was an underlying felony that did not require it to prove any intent," Judge L. Clayton Roberts wrote in an opinion for the panel. The decision continued: "Third-degree felony murder cannot be based on an unenumerated predicate felony that does not require any proof of intent."

Christine Monta, an attorney with MacArthur Justice Center, which represented Jewell on appeal, told Law360 in an emailed statement that she was "pleased" with the decision from the appeals court.

"A jury already decided that Ms. Jewell did not knowingly leave this beloved child in the car," Monta said. "Tragic accidents are not the equivalent of murder, and the court rightly recognized that Ms. Jewell should not be criminally punished for an act that the state of Florida did not — and cannot — prove was knowingly and consciously done."

Jewell was a well-known nanny and caregiver who worked for multiple families, including watching a 10-month-old girl, who was referenced in the opinion as A.P. In July 2023, Jewell arrived at the home of another family and forgot A.P. in the car, and instead proceeded inside and began watching other children, according to the panel's opinion.

Several hours later, A.P.'s mother came to pick their daughter up, and Jewell realized she had mistakenly left the child in the car in the sweltering Florida heat in July. Jewell then ran to her car and discovered a lifeless A.P. who had died of hyperthermia.

The homeowner where Jewell was watching the other children later testified that Jewell called upon finding A.P. and was distraught over forgetting the child. The homeowner testified that Jewell was so distraught she "was crying and throwing up and had urinated on herself," the panel noted.

Jewell was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child by culpable negligence. The charges were later amended to include additional charges of leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle with great bodily harm and felony murder.

A jury later acquitted Jewell of the aggravated manslaughter charge but found her guilty of the felony murder and leaving the child in the car causing great bodily harm. A trial court sentenced Jewell to a combined 17-year prison term.

On appeal, she argued a six-person jury violated her constitutional rights, and that the state failed to prove she knowingly left A.P. in the vehicle. The trial court had determined that because it was not a capital offense, a six-person jury was allowed, and sided with Jewell on needing to prove she knew she left A.P. in the car.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Florida's law against leaving children in vehicles makes it a crime to leave a child in a car for more than 15 minutes unattended. Jewell sought a jury instruction and moved for acquittal arguing the state's interpretation was wrong, and that prosecutors were required to prove she knowingly left the child in the car.

The trial court rejected Jewell's contention that the state law did not require proof of knowledge, known as a mens rea element. The trial court further found that had the Florida legislature intended for a mens rea element, it would have added one when the law was passed.

A standard jury instruction was issued for the charge of leaving the child in the car as opposed to the special instruction requested by Jewell. The trial court said the standard instruction was "insufficient to adequately convey to the jury that the state had to prove a knowing or conscious act," according to the First District opinion.

The panel found Wednesday that because it reversed the charge of illegally leaving the child in the car, it was also required to reverse the felony murder conviction. The felony murder conviction requires an underlying felony to have been committed, and the prosecutors failed to do this, the judges said.

Appeals Judge Timothy D. Osterhaus agreed with the majority except on its conclusion about legislative intent on the charge of leaving A.P. in the car causing great bodily harm. The partial dissent said the state legislature made a "deliberate choice" not to include a mens rea element.

"I don't think the majority is correct to inject the mens rea presumption into the statute here," Judge Osterhaus wrote in his partial dissent. " Indeed, there is strong contrary evidence that the legislature deliberately enacted § 316.6135 without a scienter requirement, creating a strong-medicine strict liability statute to combat the alarming number of deaths of small children left in hot cars."

A spokesperson for the Florida Attorney General's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Judges L. Clayton Roberts, Timothy D. Osterhaus and Ross L. Bilbrey sat on the panel for the First District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida

The state is represented by James Uthmeier and Daren Larry Shippy of the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Jewell is represented by Christine Monta of the MacArthur Justice Center and by Krista Ann Dolan of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The case is Rhonda Charmane Jewell v. State of Florida, case number 1D2024-3279 in the First District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida.

--Editing by Covey Son.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified a quote from Jewell's attorney. This error has been corrected.

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