LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — A Lake County woman was arrested Wednesday after an investigation into the death of a nine-year-old girl.
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34-year-old Tyshael Martin was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and child neglect for the June 17 death of her boyfriend’s daughter, identified as Jamaria Sessions.
According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, their investigation began just before 5 a.m. on June 17th after deputies responded to a 911 call from a home on Harbor Oaks Drive in Montverde, reporting an unresponsive child who was already cold to the touch.
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Emergency medical responders arrived and pronounced Sessions dead at the scene. According to a report from the sheriff’s office, they noted the girl was naked with a “significant” number of bruises, puncture wounds, burns, and bite marks covering her body.
During a brief interview with Lake County paramedics, investigations say Martin claimed she woke up that morning to catch a flight to California that sessions and other kids in the house were supposed to take to meet the girl’s father, who had left several days earlier and was waiting for them all to arrive there.
A preliminary investigation by the Medical Examiner at the scene determined the injuries to Sessions were signs of physical abuse.
According to the sheriff’s office, investigators later found video footage from the home’s security system that showed Martin commanding the family’s 103-pound rottweiler to attack Sessions two days earlier as Martin held the dog’s leash.
Deputies say the video goes on to show Martin repeatedly kicking, hitting, and shaking the motionless child while apparently saying, “I’m fixin’ to kill her.”
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According to the sheriff’s office, investigators learned through other interviews, videos, and text messages that Sessions was regularly being punished with prolonged “wall sits,” being made to run in place with her arms raised, and being struck with various objects, as well as being kicked, punched, and pinched.
Investigators say an autopsy report from the Medical Examiner’s office, completed on Tuesday, determined Sessions’ cause of death to be a homicide due to complications from multiple blunt injuries to her head, body, and extremities, in addition to burns on her right foot.
Tyshael Martin was then arrested and booked into the Lake County jail on murder and child abuse charges. She remains there on no bond.
Lake County deputies are calling it the worst case of child abuse they’ve seen in decades.
Lieutenant John Herrell said deputies visited the house two times since December 1 when a school source officer wanted to know why the children weren’t in school.
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“He explained it away that it was due to their biological mother had recently passed away,” Herrell said.
However, Herrell said the second visit in March is now the center of an administrative review.
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