A Starke woman will spend the next century in state prison for gunning down the father of her children outside a local daycare last summer, as he was picking the children up.

Mindy Osteen, 34, was sentenced Wednesday to 100 years after accepting a plea agreement on a charge of second-degree murder along with additional felony counts in the July 2025 death of Christopher Travis Jones. The two were not married but shared children together.

A Killing in Front of the Children

The shooting happened at Auntie Lili's Daycare in Starke. According to the arrest report, witnesses described Osteen walking up to Jones carrying a backpack and embracing him and the children before anything seemed wrong. Jones buckled both children into the back of his car and settled into the driver's seat. That is when, investigators say, Osteen drew a gun from the bag and fired three rounds into the vehicle.

She then stepped back and fired twice more as Jones screamed, the report states. Jones managed to get out of the car and tried to run before Osteen fired again. He did not survive.

Both children were in the back seat of the vehicle when the first shots were fired.

From First-Degree Charge to Plea Deal

Osteen was originally booked into the Bradford County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, cruelty toward a child, weapon possession, and larceny. The case was resolved without trial through the plea agreement, under which she pleaded to the reduced second-degree murder charge and other felony counts in exchange for the 100-year sentence handed down Wednesday.

At 34, the length of the sentence means Osteen is expected to spend the rest of her life in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.

Bradford County News will update this story if additional details from the sentencing hearing become available.