A Florida woman was charged this week with murder in the death of her boyfriend’s 9-year-old daughter earlier this summer.
Tyshael Martin, 34, has been charged with first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and child neglect in the June 17 death of Jamaria Sessions, WFTV reported.
Lake County sheriff’s investigators said they found video on the home’s security system that showd Martin holding a leash on the family’s 103-pound Rottweiler and ordering the dog to attack the girl two days before her death and then repeatedly kicking, hitting, and shaking the child while saying, “I’m fixin’ to kill her.”
A 911 call before 5 a.m. on June 17 alerted medics and deputies to the scene, where the child was not responding and was cold to the touch. Sessions was found naked with “numerous abrasions, bruises, burns and possible bite marks” all over her body, WESH reported.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. The medical examiner said that the injuries were signs of physical abuse and ruled Sessions’ death homicide from multiple blunt injuries and burns.
Investigators said that Martin told them the family, including several children, was getting up that morning to catch a flight to California, where their father had gone several days before and was waiting for them to arrive.
Investigators learned that Sessions was frequently punished by being forced to sit at a wall, run in place with her arms raised, struck with various objects, and kicked, punched, and pinched.
Deputies said that they had been called to the house twice before after a school resource officer asked why the children weren’t in school, WFTV said. The father, who has not been charged, “explained it away that it was due to their biological mother had recently passed away,” Lt. John Herrell said.
Herrell said one of the visits is under administrative review.
Martin made her first court appearance on Thursday and was ordered held without bond.
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[Featured image: Jamaria Sessions/handout and Tyshael Martin/Lake County Sheriff’s Office]
