An 8-year-old repeatedly alerted Jennifer Prudencio while his sick 3-year-old brother remained at home without an adult, prosecutors said.
BOSTON, Mass. — An 8-year-old boy’s overnight messages about his critically ill younger brother became a defining part of the manslaughter case against their mother, who has now been sentenced to four to six years in prison after pleading guilty in the 3-year-old’s death.
The messages placed Jennifer Prudencio in contact with her children during the hours prosecutors said she remained away from their Chelsea apartment on April 6 and 7, 2024. Her oldest son reported that 3-year-old Yael Guardado-Prudencio was sick and repeatedly vomiting and later sent a video showing his condition. Prudencio said she would be home soon, prosecutors told the court. She did not return until the following morning. More than two years later, she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and three counts of reckless endangerment of a child.
The night began with three children at home and no adult present, according to the prosecution’s account. Yael, who had a seizure disorder and hemophilia, had been ill during the preceding week. His siblings were only 8 and 7. Prosecutors said Prudencio nevertheless went to a bar in Revere and drank for several hours. She later stayed at her boyfriend’s home in Somerville instead of returning to the apartment in Chelsea, leaving the two older children responsible for themselves and their sick younger brother.
As the hours passed, the 8-year-old became the person trying to communicate the worsening situation to an adult. Prosecutors said he texted his mother that Yael was not feeling well and was continuing to vomit. At about 1 a.m., according to Court TV’s account of the case, a message included a video in which Yael appeared distressed and could be heard moaning. Prudencio responded rather than missing the communication entirely. Authorities said she told the older boy that she would be home soon and directed him to stay with Yael.
What followed became crucial to the criminal case. Prudencio remained away for about nine more hours, prosecutors said. When she finally returned at around 10 a.m. April 7, Yael was dead. At her original arraignment, prosecutor Audrey Mark said Prudencio admitted receiving the video and text expressing concern for the boy’s well-being. Mark also told the court that Prudencio was aware of the serious nature of Yael’s medical condition. Those facts gave prosecutors a record of warnings that reached Prudencio while there was still an expectation from her child that she would come home.
The overnight messages did not occur in isolation. Prosecutors said Yael had been showing troubling symptoms for days. The 3-year-old had hemophilia as well as a history of seizures. During the week before his death, he had vomited blood and suffered a facial wound after falling during a seizure. The injury was not healing properly, authorities said. Prudencio did seek medical care for him twice that week, and Court TV reported that medication options for his seizure condition had been discussed during those visits. On the evening Prudencio went out, prosecutors said Yael vomited again and appeared pale.
Authorities did not need to rely only on what Prudencio should have known from the earlier illness. The prosecution emphasized the later communications because they provided another series of warnings from the apartment. At her 2024 arraignment, the state argued that Prudencio chose to stay away despite the information sent by her son. She initially pleaded not guilty. Judge David E. Frank set bail at $100,000, and the court imposed restrictions on contact with children if she were released. The case was later transferred into the Superior Court process after an indictment.
The criminal case remained unresolved for more than two years. Court records showed that proceedings included multiple examinations of Prudencio’s competency to stand trial. In May 2026, she was ordered to the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center for a 20-day evaluation. A trial was eventually scheduled for November, but Prudencio indicated in August that she planned to change her plea. The docket said a judge found that her decision to give up her trial rights was knowing, voluntary and intelligent.
On Sept. 22, Prudencio entered guilty pleas in Suffolk Superior Court to one count of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of reckless endangerment of a child. There was no negotiated sentencing agreement resolving the punishment, according to Court TV. Prosecutors asked the court to treat the case as more serious than a typical offense covered by the state sentencing guidelines. The defense asked the judge to account for Prudencio’s personal history, including abuse and trauma that attorney Peter Marano said shaped her life long before Yael’s death.
Judge Joshua Wall sided with the prosecution on the need for a sentence above the guideline level. Reporting from the hearing said the court considered aggravating factors that included Yael’s age, the circumstances of his final hours and the parental duty involved. Wall sentenced Prudencio to four to six years in state prison followed by three years of probation. Court-record reports said she received 284 days of credit for time already served and was committed to MCI-Framingham.
The probation order extends the case’s consequences beyond the prison term. Prudencio is required to undergo mental health treatment and refrain from consuming alcohol or illegal drugs, according to reporting based on the court record. She must also complete a parenting class if she later has another child or seeks visitation or reunification with her surviving children. Court TV reported at sentencing that those children were living with Prudencio’s mother and that the Department of Children and Families had a goal of eventual family reunification, subject to the child-welfare process.
Yael’s death first became public after Chelsea police responded to the family’s Spencer Avenue home on April 7, 2024, and found him unresponsive. Two days later, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced Prudencio’s arrest. District Attorney Kevin Hayden described the death of such a young child as a profound tragedy while emphasizing at that stage that the charges were allegations. Prudencio’s guilty plea has now ended the question of whether the case would go to trial and converted those criminal charges into convictions.
The texts sent by the 8-year-old remain among the clearest documented features of the case: a young child, left without adult supervision, was trying to summon his mother’s attention as his younger brother’s condition deteriorated. The court’s final sentence does not change what happened inside the apartment that night, but it closes the principal criminal prosecution with Prudencio serving a state prison term and facing three additional years of supervision after release.
Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.