‘He didn’t protect her’: family remembers 9-year-old after father was arrested for her death

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The grandmother of 9-year-old Jamaria Sessions said she’d been fighting for two years for custody of her grandchildren before she died of abuse.

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“I blame the system. Yes, I do. CPS and the courts because if they had just one person cared. She wouldn’t be dead right now,” said Althea Chenault, Jamaria’s grandmother.

Chenault said she had been fighting to protect her grandchildren for two years since the girl’s mother tragically died in 2022.

“All they had to do for one minute go in there and look at her, and they would have pulled her out the house,” said Chenault.

Read: ‘I’m fixin’ to kill her’: Lake County woman charged in death of boyfriend’s 9-year-old daughter

Chenault spoke with Channel 9 the day after Jamaria’s father was arrested for the death of his daughter.

Lojuan Sessions is currently in Orange County Jail for Aggravated Manslaughter of a child. He was arrested two days after his girlfriend was arrested.

Tyshael Martin is in Lake County Jail for Neglect, Aggravated Child abuse, and First-Degree murder of Jamaria.

READ: Girl, 6, left on hot bus at Oviedo daycare

“We’ve been calling the child abuse hotline, trying to get help,” said Chenault.

Chenault said Jamaria was a sweetheart, loved animals, and wanted to grow up and be a veterinarian. She also said she was close with her little sister.

“She was her sister’s keeper. Every time you see one, you see the other. That was the sweetest girl in the world,” said Chenault

Chenault said her strength after the death of Jamaria is fighting to get custody of her youngest grandchild.

Chenault has family court in September.

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