Prosecutors said Jennifer Prudencio knew her 3-year-old had serious health problems before leaving him overnight with two young siblings.
BOSTON, Mass. — Days of illness, a seizure-related injury and fresh signs that 3-year-old Yael Guardado-Prudencio remained unwell preceded the overnight absence that ultimately led his mother to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and receive a four-to-six-year prison sentence.
The case against Jennifer Prudencio was built in large part around what prosecutors said she knew before leaving her Chelsea apartment on April 6, 2024. Yael had hemophilia and a seizure disorder. Authorities said he had vomited blood in the preceding days, suffered a facial wound during a seizure and received medical attention twice that week. Prosecutors said he again vomited and looked pale before Prudencio went out. She then left him with siblings who were 8 and 7 years old and stayed away until the next morning.
Hemophilia and seizures were not simply details uncovered after Yael’s death. Prosecutors said Prudencio was familiar with both conditions and had recently sought treatment for him. During her 2024 arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Audrey Mark told the court that the boy’s facial wound was not healing properly after he fell during a seizure. Court TV later reported that medical appointments that week included discussion of adjusting or adding anti-seizure medication. Toxicology testing after Yael’s death showed no detectable level of that medication in his blood, the network reported, although the available reporting does not establish that result as the sole cause of his death.
The prosecution’s focus was instead on the total circumstances confronting Prudencio when she made the decision to leave. She knew Yael had significant medical needs, prosecutors said, and she had seen new symptoms that evening. Nonetheless, there was no adult left in the apartment. His two older siblings became the only people present to watch him. Prudencio traveled to nearby Revere, where authorities said she drank beer at a bar for several hours, and afterward went to a boyfriend’s home in Somerville rather than returning to her children.
The risks that prosecutors said were evident before Prudencio left became more immediate overnight. Her 8-year-old son began sending messages about Yael’s condition. The older child reported that his brother was not feeling well and continued vomiting. He also sent a video showing the 3-year-old in distress. Prosecutors said Prudencio saw the communication and replied that she would be home soon. Instead, she remained away until about 10 a.m. the next morning, roughly nine hours after one of the critical messages described in court reporting.
When Prudencio returned on April 7, Yael was unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. Chelsea police responded to the Spencer Avenue apartment. On April 9, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced that Prudencio had been arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment of a child. At that point, the district attorney’s office stressed the presumption of innocence. Prudencio pleaded not guilty at her arraignment, and a judge set bail at $100,000 while imposing restrictions on contact with children if she were released.
The prosecution developed the case around conduct rather than an allegation that Prudencio had directly inflicted a fatal injury. Its theory, as described publicly in court, was that her responsibility arose from leaving a medically vulnerable child without adult care and then failing to return despite receiving warnings from the older sibling. The three reckless-endangerment counts also reflected the circumstances affecting all three young children who were left in the apartment. By the time of sentencing, Prudencio no longer contested criminal responsibility and pleaded guilty to each of the charges before the Superior Court.
The path to that plea was not immediate. Prudencio’s case moved through the court system for more than two years and included questions about her competency to stand trial. The Boston Globe reported that she underwent multiple evaluations and was ordered hospitalized for 20 days in May 2026 for further assessment. A November trial date was on the calendar, but court records showed that Prudencio elected in August to change her plea. A judge found that her decision was knowing, voluntary and intelligent, clearing the way for the guilty plea in September.
The sentencing hearing then turned from whether Prudencio was criminally responsible to how severely she should be punished. Prosecutors did not reach an agreed recommendation with the defense. They argued that several aggravating circumstances justified going above the state sentencing guidelines, including Yael’s young age and the responsibility Prudencio had to protect him. The state also emphasized the length of time the children were without an adult and the warnings she received while she remained away.
Defense attorney Peter Marano asked the court to consider Prudencio’s own history. He described her as a survivor of abuse and rape and portrayed her upbringing and relationships as significant mitigating factors. Some personal information was discussed privately at sidebar. Marano argued that justice should include correction and rehabilitation as well as punishment and told the court there was no positive outcome available in a case in which a child had already died. The defense’s presentation did not erase Prudencio’s guilty plea but sought a lower sentence than prosecutors believed the circumstances warranted.
Judge Joshua Wall imposed a four-to-six-year state prison sentence, followed by three years of probation. The term exceeded the guideline level described in courtroom reporting. Prudencio received 284 days of credit for time she had already spent in custody and was committed to MCI-Framingham, according to court-record reports. The sentence gave prosecutors much of what they sought in arguing that the combination of Yael’s condition, his age, the absence of adult supervision and the overnight warnings made the case more serious than the ordinary guideline calculation suggested.
The court also addressed Prudencio’s life after incarceration. Probation conditions include mental health treatment and a requirement that she abstain from alcohol and illegal drugs. She must take a parenting class if she has another child or later seeks reunification or visitation with her surviving children. Court TV reported that those children were living with Prudencio’s mother when she was sentenced and that state child-welfare officials had identified eventual reunification as a goal. The ultimate arrangements will depend on the child-welfare process and compliance with applicable conditions.
The medical evidence in the case leaves an important distinction. Public reporting establishes that Yael had serious health problems, that he had been ill before the night of his death and that Prudencio knew of those problems. It also establishes that he was left without an adult and that his brother warned their mother overnight. The sources reviewed do not support reducing the case to a single medical mechanism that caused his death. Prudencio’s conviction instead rests on her guilty plea to manslaughter and endangerment arising from the broader sequence of decisions and circumstances prosecutors presented.
Prudencio is now serving the prison sentence imposed Sept. 22. With the guilty plea, the prosecution that began after Yael was found unresponsive in April 2024 will not proceed to the jury trial once expected in November. The remaining court-imposed consequences are her incarceration, three years of probation after release and the conditions governing treatment, substance use and any future effort involving parental visitation or reunification.
Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.