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

Rhonda Jewell, 46, is charged with the death of 10-month-old Ariya Paige 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 he 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 child’s mother, Brooke Paige, came to pick her up, she realized she had left Ariya in the SUV.

RELATED: The happy life and tragic death of baby Ariya

“That’s when I realized I didn’t get that kid out of the car,” Jewell said through tears on the stand Thursday. “I left 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 nanny at the age of 17 but took a break after having children.

She said she didn’t start babysitting again until 2017 and that she took care of the children she babysat for as if they were her own.

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

She said she saw Ariya’s grandmother, Monique Carter, as her best friend and talked about her relationship with Ariya’s mother, Brooke.

“I’ve been there for baby showers, weddings. I gravitated towards her, just like any kid,” Jewell said.

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

RELATED | ‘Justice for Ariya’: Parents of 10-month-old who died in hot car remember ‘daddy’s girl’

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

He said when he interviewed Jewell, she told him she forgot to get Ariya out of the SUV because she was distracted by thoughts of 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 for Ariya declaring April “Hot Car Death Prevention Month.”