MONTVERDE, Fla. (TMX) – A Florida woman has been arrested in connection with the June death of her boyfriend’s 9-year-old daughter, who was mauled by a Rottweiler.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging 34-year-old Tyshael Elise Martin with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect. She was arrested Wednesday evening near her Monteverde home and booked into the Lake County Jail.
On June 17, emergency medical personnel responded to a 911 call reporting an unresponsive child at the residence, where Martin lived with her boyfriend and his daughter, Jamaria Sessions. When paramedics saw the nature of the child’s condition, the sheriff’s office was also called to respond.
EMS found numerous bruises, abrasions, burns and bite marks on Sessions’ body. The medical examiner’s preliminary findings indicated Sessions’ injuries were consistent with abuse, and the sheriff’s office executed a search warrant to obtain video from the family’s in-home security cameras.
Video from the night of June 15 allegedly showed Martin holding the leash on the family’s Rottweiler and giving the dog commands as it viciously attacked the girl. Martin could allegedly be seen in the video kicking the motionless child, dragging her across the floor, and repeatedly striking and shaking her.
Investigators say the audio sounds as if Martin says, “I’m fixin’ to kill her.”
Detectives reviewed additional video, conducted interviews and reviewed text messages that allegedly revealed Sessions was repeatedly punished by being forced to do prolonged wall sits, run in place with her arms up, and was struck with objects, kicked, punched and pinched.
The medical examiner’s final ruling was that Sessions died as a result of complications from multiple blunt injuries to the head, torso and extremities and thermal injury of the right foot. The manner of death was listed as homicide.
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