John Jefferson
Inset: Jamaria Sessions (Mitchell’s Funeral Home). Screengrab: Tyshael Martin speaks with Florida detectives about Jamaria’s death (WESH/YouTube).
A 34-year-old woman who allegedly ordered a 100-pound dog to attack a 9-year-old girl before beating her to death told police detectives she was using “scare tactics” to get the girl to behave.
Tyshael Elise Martin is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of Jamaria Sessions. Authorities released videos of her interrogation with investigators from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV and NBC affiliate WESH. Martin was insistent that she “didn’t cause her death.”
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“I didn’t kill her,” she said. “I didn’t murder her.”
But detectives obtained some 3,000 videos from inside and outside the home that told a different story. In the interrogation video, the investigator ran down some of the allegations: That Martin made Jamaria run in place. That she hit her from behind, causing her to trip and fall over a bag of dog food, spraining her ankle.
“Were you telling the dog to bite her?” the detective asked. “Because that’s what it sounds like in the video. You’re holding on to the leash saying ‘I’m gonna let you get her. I’m gonna let you get her.””
Cops showed Martin autopsy photos and told her there were so many injuries on Jamaria’s body that the autopsy report was 26 pages long.
Then the detective listed all the charges against her.
“Why am I being charged with premeditated murder?” Martin asked.
The detective responded: “Well, because some of the statements that you made while you were attacking Jamaria about killing her.”
Martin shrugged the accusations off as “scare tactics.”
“Scare tactics was also premeditation,” the detective retorted.
Martin blamed Jamaria’s broken teeth on her falling on the treadmill. She also appeared to at least in part blame her boyfriend, Jamaria’s father LoJuan Sessions, when cops asked if she was “accountable” for the girl’s death. He’s charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, though he wasn’t home the day Jamaria died.
“I just, I mean, when you say accountable, I feel like I probably could have done more to, you know, possibly prevent things from happening,” Martin said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, deputies responded the morning of June 17 to a home in the 16000 block of Harbar Oaks Drive in Montverde. Paramedics found Jamaria naked with “a significant number of abrasions, small punctures, burns, possible bite marks, and bruising covering her body, all in various stages of healing,” a probable cause arrest affidavit said.
Martin said the family was supposed to take a flight that morning to California for vacation. According to the affidavit, she told cops she tried to wake up Jamaria, but she was unresponsive and cold to the touch.
Deputies honed on six videos that show events that they say occurred shortly before midnight on June 15. The videos allegedly show Jamaria being “viciously attacked by the family pet, a 103lb male rottweiler.” Martin is seen holding the dog’s leash, “encouraging the dog to bite” Jamaria as she’s lying on the floor, just out of the camera’s view, the affidavit said.
“The next clips show Jamaria Sessions staggering, nude and disheveled,” the affidavit says. “Jamaria’s hair, previously in a partial bun, was now messy, and her extensions were falling out of her hair. It appeared that the dog had bitten the child’s head, pulling at her hair, at the command of Tyshael Martin.”
Martin then allegedly forces the girl to stand in place with her arms held up in the air. Jamaria appeared to be disoriented and exhibited an orbital sway, which caused Martin to kick her, deputies wrote. The girl fell to the ground, where deputies say she lay as Martin kicked her hip and stomach area “at full force.”
Martin then allegedly grabbed Jamaria “by her hair” and pulled her across the floor. Jamaria was not seen resisting, and she “appeared to be disoriented and motionless,” the affidavit said.
According to deputies, Martin continued to beat Jamaria and said something that sounded like “I’m fixin’ to kill her.”
Detectives also learned that Martin used exercises as a form of punishment, including prolonged wall sits, running in place with her hands up and running on a treadmill, the affidavit said. Martin also allegedly would kick, punch and pinch the girl.
An autopsy determined the girl died of blunt force injuries to the head, torso and extremities and thermal injury to the right foot. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Prosecutors in October announced they are seeking the death penalty against Martin.
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