Fla. Woman Allegedly Ordered Rottweiler to Attack 9-Year-Old Girl, Now Faces Murder Charge

Mar. 15, 2025

Jamaria Sessions.Photo:Mitchells Funeral Home

Mitchells Funeral Home

“I’m fixin’ to kill her,” Martin says, per the investigators’ transcription.

On Aug. 28, detectives arrested the 34-year-old on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect in connection with the death of her boyfriend’s daughter, who lived with her, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Two days later, Jamaria’s father, LoJuan Sessions, was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, according to police.

Sessions is expected to make his first court appearance in an Orange County court Saturday, Aug. 31, Lt. John Herrell tells PEOPLE. Martin appeared before a judge in Lake County on Aug. 29. She did not enter a plea. It was not immediately clear if either had yet retained attorneys.

Tyshael Elise Martin.Lake County Sheriff’s Office

Lake County Sheriff’s Office

LoJuan Sessions.Lake County Sheriff’s Office

Jamaria – who was living with her father’s estranged girlfriend and her children as well as another sibling at the time of the attack – was treated differently from the others, investigators allege in the affidavit.

Although the other children had rooms of their own, Jamaria was allegedly forced to “sleep on the couch or on a crib-sized mattress in another child’s room, and had nothing outside of clothing, to call her own,” per the affidavit.

The girl spent her childhood passing between adults following her mother’s death. She lived with her maternal grandmother until shortly after her father’s release from jail in August 2023, per the affidavit.

That October, she moved in with Sessions and Martin, with whom he shared a biological child.

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The couple had a criminal history of dealing or possession of illegal narcotics and exposing their children to dangerous situations, per the affidavit, which notes that in 2020 Sessions was sentenced to five years in prison for trafficking in MDMA and two counts of felony child neglect.

Fleeing law enforcement with three children in his vehicle, he had crashed, gravely injuring two, who were air-lifted to a hospital, per the affidavit.

Sessions later told investigators that the couple fought on June 12 and he moved out the following day, leaving his daughter behind, the affidavit claims.

Four days later, an anonymous 911 caller reported an unresponsive child, who was cold to the touch, per the affidavit.

First-responders pronounced the naked child dead, noting she had “a significant number of abrasions, small punctures, burns, possible bite marks, and bruising covering her body, all in various stages of healing,” per the affidavit. Jamaria’s face was swollen and she had multiple broken teeth.

Investigators say the injuries were consistent with physical abuse.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com