A woman whose 4-year-old daughter was shot dead by an older sibling who found a loaded gun in the family’s home was denied bond and remained jailed Thursday, when a judge said Family Court will first need to set the parameters for any visits the woman would have with her three remaining children.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Bandin said there are ongoing parallel court proceedings in Juvenile Dependency court, an arm of Family Court. After denying Krystal Benegas the right to leave jail, the judge set a new court date in February, the day after the defendant’s next scheduled hearing in Family Court.

As the three-day hearing that began last week neared its end and Benegas, 25, sensed the outcome, her emotions surfaced. Seated alone in the jury box, handcuffed and wearing a standard red jumpsuit, she shook her head repeatedly. When she tried to speak, she was rebuffed by her attorney. Several times Benegas pressed her palms against her face, hiding tears.

“There’s a history of not great parenting. A history of stuff that’s happened that’s been documented,” Bandin said after scouring pages of Florida Department of Children & Families records. “First I need to see what happens in Dependency, then I can craft something here.”

A new ruling in Dependency Court would be the third since Josalyn Taylor-Rolle, 4, was shot and killed by her older brother on Nov. 5, according to police. When the children were removed from Benegas and her boyfriend the day after the shooting, the dependency court said the mother could visit her kids twice weekly for 90 minutes at a time, but only under the strict supervision of their caretakers. Two of the chidlren are living with their father, and the third is living with Benegas’s father.

A month later, after Benegas and her boyfriend, Quvanta Ennels, were arrested on charges related to the shooting, Dependency Court Judge Yere Marrero renewed her earlier decision. On Thursday, Bandin said she’d speak with the judge and issue a ruling on Benegas’s release at a later date.

“That court has more experience with this defendant,” Bandin said, before adding that her inclination was to eventually release Benegas from jail while wearing an ankle monitor.

KIDS FIND LOADED WEAPON

On the first Sunday in November, police called to the family’s Northwest Miami-Dade home found Josalyn dead on a bedroom floor. She had been shot in the head. The weapon, they said, was 15 feet away in the kitchen. The home, investigators said, was in “disarray.”

Cockroaches and a rat were running free near food, and marijuana was found in several places, the officers said. A soft black holster was found on the bedroom floor between a door and a dresser. A bullet was recovered from a wall in the room. A loaded magazine with 10 cartridges was found in a garbage bin near the gun.

Benegas and Ennels admitted to leaving the children, ages 2, 3, 4 and 6, unattended in a bedroom. Ennels told police the 6-year-old, referred to as K.W. in court filings, fired the fatal shot. Though investigators said K.W. changed his story several times, they said he was steadfast in denying he shot his sister. At one point he said she shot herself.

Police didn’t believe him.

“As a result,” Miami-Dade Police Detective Elizabeth Mata concluded in the arrest warrants, “the conclusion is clear: The co-defendant [Ennels] left an unsecured loaded firearm within the ready reach of a minor child… who used the firearm to inflict death upon another child.”

On Dec. 4 police arrested Ennels. Benegas was arrested the next day. Both were charged with a single count of child neglect with great bodily harm and three counts of child neglect without bodily harm. Bond for each has been set at $800,000. Both face possible sentences of as much as 45 years.

STATE: BOYFRIEND MORE CULPABLE

A state prosecutor said in court that Benegas has been offered a much shorter prison term if she pleads guilty. Though he wouldn’t go into the spectifics of why the plea was offered, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Khalil Quinan said the state believes Ennels is the more culpable of the two in the young child’s death.

Under oath earlier this week, Joshua Taylor-Rolle, the father of two of Benegas’s children, admitted that DCF had visited the family several times in the past. He also admitted that Benegas had defied a judge’s order not to have contact with her children after her arrest.

On Thursday, a woman who said she was willing to house Benegas under strict supervision if she’s released before her trial was questioned briefly by Defense Attorney Alex Saiz and Bandin.

Benegas is scheduled to be back in court before Judge Bandin on Feb. 9.