John Jefferson
Left: Jamaria Sessions (Mitchell’s Funeral Home). Right: Tyshael Elise Martin (Lake County Jail).
Florida prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a woman accused of ordering her family’s 100-pound rottweiler to attack her boyfriend’s 9-year-old daughter before fatally beating the girl.
Tyshael Elise Martin, 35, is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child and aggravated child abuse in the June death of Jamaria Sessions in Montverde, about 25 miles west of Orlando. Investigators obtained videos from inside the home of the girl’s savage beating allegedly at Martin’s hands. An autopsy determined Jamaria 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.
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State attorneys in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit filed a motion stating their intent to seek the death penalty. In order to impose capital punishment for murder in the Sunshine State, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt at least one out of a list of aggravating factors.
In Martin’s case, they say they can prove five:
1. Florida Statute § 921.141(6)(d) — The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit aggravated child abuse.
2. Florida Statute § 921.141(6)(h) — The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
3. Florida Statute § 921.141(6)(i) — The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
4. Florida Statute § 921.141(6)(l) — The victim of the capital felony was a person less than 12 years of age.
5. Florida Statute § 921.141(6)(m) — The victim of the capital felony was particularly vulnerable because the defendant stood in a position of familial or custodial authority over the victim.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Lake County Sheriff deputies responded the morning of June 17 to a home in the 16000 block of Harbor 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. She told cops she tried to wake up Jamaria, but she was unresponsive and cold to the touch.
Detectives obtained nearly 3,000 videos from inside and outside the home and ultimately focused in on six videos that were taken shortly before midnight on June 15. They 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 started to sway, which caused Martin to kick her, deputies wrote. The girl fell to the ground.
“The child lay motionless, moaning in pain, as Tyshael Martin continued to kick her hip and eventually her stomach area at full force,” deputies wrote. “When the child did not get up, Tyshael Martin then grabbed the child by her hair, pulling her across the floor, with minimal resistance by Jamaria Sessions, who appeared to be disorientated and motionless.”
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 apparently used exercises, including prolonged wall sits, running in place with her hands up and running on a treadmill, as a form of punishment, the affidavit said. Martin would also allegedly kick, punch and pinch the girl.
Jamaria’s father LoJuan Sessions, 27, is charged with aggravated manslaughter. Martin and Sessions are in the Lake County Jail without bond.
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