LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Sitting upright in the office chair in the corner of the interrogation room, Tyshael Martin faced the two Lake County detectives and insisted, again and again, she was not responsible for killing a nine-year-old several months prior.
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“I didn’t cause her death,” she shot. “I didn’t kill her, I didn’t do murder her, I didn’t do none of that.”
In the hours before, Martin had been arrested and charged with capital murder for the death of Jamaria Sessions, the daughter of her then-boyfriend LoJuan.
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Martin claimed she found Jamaria dead after waking up, but evidence shared by prosecutors showed detectives quickly determined Jamaria was abused – heavily – before she died.
“You see all the marks all over her body?” a detective asked Martin, showing her a document in a censored segment of the interrogation video. “Her autopsy reports are over 26 pages long because they have to identify all these marks.”
Most of the marks, detectives said, were pinch marks, crisscrossing Jamaria’s arms, torso and legs.
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Martin, who earlier admitted to pinching Jamaria as a form of punishment, deflected.
“I didn’t pinch her that many times,” she said.
Martin had earlier claimed that she was not around for most of the abuse, and that LoJuan, who was later charged with aggravated manslaughter in connection to Jamaria’s death, was the main culprit. At one point, she said her preferred method of punishment was to make Jamaria clean.
Martin also said she was ill in the days leading up to Jamaria’s death and was largely unaware of the happenings around the house.
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“Do you know about how her lip got busted or her teeth got broken out of her mouth?” one detective asked.
“I thought it was from the treadmill,” Martin said, “Because that’s what she I believe she told us already that.”
That was one of three areas where Martin changed her story from an interview after Jamaria’s death when she claimed she fed Jamaria popsicles the night before, which detectives noted would’ve caused the girl intense pain.
She also claimed she set the house’s alarm – but was then asked why didn’t go off when other children went to the park.
The other adjustment was when Martin recalled finding Jamaria’s body. In one interview, it was when she woke up and turned a light in the room the two shared on. In the other, it was after she left and re-entered the room.
Detectives repeatedly pressed her to turn on LoJuan, believing that he was responsible for more than he was sharing despite not being home the night Jamaria died. They asked her time after time why she wanted to take the “fall” for the murder and allow him to remain out of jail.
Ultimately, they had to bring out the big guns against her.
“Your cameras are top-notch,” a detective said. “We’ve got 2,820 videos that had to go through, and it captured a lot.”
The videos included direct contradictions to Martin’s claims about how Jamaria became injured – including occasions where she kicked Jamaria from behind, dragged her down the stairs and had the dog bite the girl, detectives said.
“Do you think that you’re at all accountable for her death in your heart?” one detective asked.
“I just I mean, when you say accountable, I feel like I probably could have did more to, you know, possibly prevent things from happening,” Martin said.
She then asked a question of her own.
“Why premeditated murder?” she asked.
“Well, because of some of the statements that you made while you were attacking Jamaria about killing her,” the detective replied.
“Scare tactics,” Martin protested.
The detective wasn’t having it.
“Scare tactics was also pre-meditation,” he said.
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