On Sept. 23, 2019, two-year-old June Love Agosto was found unconscious in a vehicle. On Wednesday, Agosto’s mother was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison after leaving her in a heated, sealed car to die while she went out to drink.
According to a police report reported by People, on Sept. 22, Lacey Ana Mazzarella, 35, “left June buckled into her car set, with a blanket over her legs, and the heat in the vehicle.”
Mazzarella alleges she went inside a friend’s car parked next to hers to drink, accidentally falling asleep. When she awoke five hours later and returned to her car, Agosto was dead. Her body temperature was 107.5 degrees.
According to the prosecutor, “the engine and heater were still running.”
Her body was found with burns to her face, chest, and arms.
According to People, “police allege that Mazzarella removed June from the vehicle, placed her on the lawn, and sprayed her with a hose to try to cool her off.”
Originally charged with one count each of murder and child neglect resulting in death, Mazzarella “pleaded no contest in October to one count each of voluntary manslaughter, mayhem and child abuse resulting in death.”
Mazzarella agreed with her prison sentence. It was “the punishment to which she agreed when she entered her guilty pleas to the lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter, mayhem and child abuse resulting in death.”
