Jamaria Sessions' father arrested in 9-year-old Florida girl's death, deputies say

The father of 9-year-old Jamaria Sessions has been arrested in connection to his daughter's brutal death, the Lake County Sheriff's Office announced Friday.

Lo Juan Sessions, Jamaria's biological father, was arrested Friday in Orange County on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child in connection to the 9-year-old girl's death, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said. The probable cause statement leading to Lo Juan's arrest was not immediately available. FOX 35 has requested it.

Lo Juan's arrest comes one day after his girlfriend, Tyshael Elise Martin, 34, was arrested and booked into jail on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and child neglect.

According to the arrest report, home surveillance video allegedly showed Martin encouraging the family's 103-pound dog to "viciously" attack the young child in mid-June, who was often the victim of Martin's alleged abusive behavior.

Young Jamaria was seen on camera lying disoriented and motionless outside, before being brought inside where she was allegedly kicked, dragged, pushed, and abused by Martin, the arrest report said.

Jamaria was found unresponsive at the home on June 17 – and later died. Officials noted she had multiple abrasions, bruises, burn marks, possible bite marks – all in various stages of healing, according to the arrest report.

Earlier this week, the medical examiner released Jamaria's autopsy report. It found that she died from multiple blunt force injuries to the head, torso, and extremities, as well as a thermal injury to her right foot. The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

Officials said in their report that Jamaria was frequently punished by unusual means, including extended wall sits, being forced to run in place with her arms up or forced to run a treadmill, being struck with variou items, and often kicked, punched, or pinched.

A spokesperson for the Lake County Sheriff's Office said this case is "the worst case of aggravated child abuse we've ever seen."

Detectives suspect 'pattern of abuse'

Jamaria and her younger sister had been staying with their grandmother, Althea Chenault. Their mother, Tadrina Dort, died of leukemia in September 2022.

"I already knew something was going to happen. I kept saying it was going to happen," said Chenault.

Dort had tried twice to get injunctions against Martin, citing ongoing violence, threats, and harassment.

"Tadrina was in the hospital, and she was writing Tadrina on Facebook saying she hoped she died," said Chenault. 

However, her little girls wound up living with the same woman this family feared.

And 9-year-old Jamaria wound up in an urn.

"I'll look at that urn every day," said Roxanna Payne, Jamaria's paternal grandmother. "And it won't talk to me. It won't hug me. It won't say, ‘Nana, can we go make biscuits today?’"

"Detectives believe that this was the result of an ongoing, consistent pattern of severe abuse," said Lt. John Herrell with the sheriff's office.

In December, a school resource deputy at Grassy Lake Elementary noticed Jamaria and her sister were missing school and requested a wellbeing check.

A deputy went by the house and talked with Sessions.  

"He attributed their absences to the mother's passing," explained Lt. Herrell.

In March, the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) called the sheriff’s office after receiving an anonymous complaint about Martin possibly mistreating Jamaria’s younger sister.

"And I can tell you that that call has actually become the subject of one of our open administrative investigations because we have concerns about how our employee handled that call," said Lt. Herrell. 

That’s the same month Jamaria was taken to the hospital with severe bite wounds from Martin’s dog. A neighbor told FOX 35 News they had called animal control about the dogs before and had called DCF.

Some residents in the neighborhood started getting concerned in May, noticing the girls were out of school again. The sheriff’s office says there were other calls to DCF about this home, but a couple were deemed too vague to follow up on. 

FOX 35 asked DCF about those calls, and the department said it was working on the request. 

Those aren’t the only kids in the household. Martin and Sessions share a child, and Martin has two others of her own. Her 18-year-old daughter told detectives she and Martin’s other daughters would also sometimes discipline Jamaria. 

"You took a beautiful spirit from this world, and you crushed it. Because of what? Jealousy?" said Payne. Jealousy made you kill someone. Jealousy made you kill a child."

The entire group of kids had just gone on a cruise together with Martin and Martin’s mother about a week before Jamaria’s death. Sessions didn’t attend. An affidavit explains he "was in the midst of an affair with another female, who subsequently became pregnant with his child. It is unknown if Tyshael Martin knew of this affair."

He did get text updates from Martin about the trip – namely, about Jamaria being disciplined. The affidavit said Martin made up an entire story about Jamaria flashing a boy on the cruise and running from the childcare center. 

"It is believed these fictitious events were crafted by Tysahel Martin so that she can physically discipline Jamaria, maliciously or otherwise account for injuries inflicted upon Jamaria," the affidavit read.

The affidavit also detailed how Martin treated Jamaria differently from her biological children.

"It was learned that despite every other child having their own room, furniture, bed, etc. Jamaria Sessions was required 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," the affidavit says. 

The affidavit also explained that Sessions did, at least to some degree, know or suspect something was wrong. In text messages, Sessions accused Martin of abuse.