Kristel Candelario, who was sentenced to life in prison for the death of her toddler — whom she left alone for more than a week while she went on vacation — blamed her mental problems for the decision to abandon her daughter. Candelario spoke with Noticias Telemundo on Wednesday from prison in Cleveland, Ohio, where she’s serving her sentence for the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Jailyn.
“I didn’t want to continue living, because I had had a lot of problems in my life.” During the trip, Candelario said, she thought about her daughter and the fact that she was alone: “The people who accompanied me could see that I was very distracted, I was very angry. They told me, ‘Kristel, what’s happening? You’re not yourself.’ I never mentioned anything .” Candelario said her boyfriend asked her about Jailyn one day during the trip.