Video After The Jump
PENSACOLA, Fla. (WEAR) — Police say a 34-year-old woman killed her 14-year-old special needs daughter inside a Pensacola, Fla. hospital room in July.
Pensacola police announced Tuesday morning that Jessica Bortle, 34, of Bonifay, Fla. was arrested Monday on a manslaughter charge. She's being held in Escambia County Jail without bond.
The fatal victim is 14-year-old Jasmine Singletary.
Police say Singletary — who was a special needs person with a neuromuscular disorder — was admitted to Ascension Sacred Heart in Pensacola July 8 for an infection. The fatal incident then happened July 13 while she was alone in her hospital room with her mother, Bortle, and her grandmother.
According to police, Singletary lost consciousness while in her hospital bed and died despite life-saving measures taken by hospital staff. An autopsy July 21 showed she suffered massive internal injuries to her ribs and liver while in the bed — injuries that weren't present when she was admitted to the hospital.
Police say an investigation determined that Bortle caused the fatal injuries to her daughter. The arrest report states doctors said the injuries were "similar to those found on traffic crash victims." It adds that the injuries happened through "blunt force trauma."
The Medical Examiner indicated that the injuries were so severe that Jasmine would have died only minutes after receiving them," police said in a press release. "They had to have occurred while Jasmine was confined to her hospital bed.
According to the report, video footage from outside the room showed Bortle exiting the room just before hospital staff discovered Singletary unconscious. Bortle was seen on camera "shaking and flexing her hand as if in pain."
The report states Bortle initially lied to police, saying nothing had occurred to explain her daughter's injuries. She then later changed her story, telling police that she "slammed the hospital table into Singletary's abdomen and then leaned onto the table with her weight." Bortle said she did so because she became angry after Singletary cussed at her about color crayons, according to the report.
The report states the grandmother's statement about the incident was similar to Bortle's.
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