Mom sentenced after killing her children’s father at daycare while kids were in car seats

STARKE, Fla. (WCJB/Gray News) - A woman was sentenced after killing the father of her children at a daycare in Florida, according to authorities.

Mindy Osteen, 34, pleaded to second-degree murder and other felony charges in connection with the July 2025 killing of Christopher Travis Jones.

She was sentenced to 100 years in prison after accepting a plea.

Osteen shot Jones at Auntie Lili’s Daycare in Starke as he was picking up their children.

According to an arrest report, witnesses saw Osteen approach Jones with a backpack and hug him and the children. After Jones placed both children in the back of his car and got into the driver’s seat, Osteen pulled a gun from the bag and fired three shots into the car.

She then backed up and fired two more shots as Jones screamed. Jones jumped out of the vehicle and attempted to run away, at which point Osteen fired another shot.

Jones ran into the daycare to take shelter but was unable to get through a second security door.

Trapped between the front door and the second door, Jones was shot three more times. Osteen’s gun then malfunctioned, and she stepped outside to clear it before returning to Jones.

When Bradford County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, Jones told them Osteen was responsible for the shooting. Osteen told deputies she had acted in self-defense. Jones was taken to a hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

In addition to Osteen and Jones’s two children, who were in the vehicle at the time, six other children and two employees were inside the daycare during the shooting.

Osteen had been booked into the Bradford County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, cruelty toward a child, weapon possession and larceny following the incident.