Killa City: Man accused of abusing, killing 2-year-old girl
Jarrett E. Tinsley is accused of killing and abusing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter Wednesday at the couple’s Raytown apartment (8611 Utopia).
This morning, Jackson County prosecutors charged Tinsley, 20, with
second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child and abuse of a
child resulting in death.
The girl’s mother told police that she left her 2-year-old and 6-month-old daughters with Tinsley at 9 a.m. Wednesday. At 9 p.m., the girl’s mother saw her daughter sleeping a chair in the living room. Tinsley took the girl to her bedroom. The girl woke up, and Tinsley gave her a glass of water. But 15 minutes later, Tinsley told the girl’s mother she better check on her daughter. The girl wasn’t breathing. The girl was taken to Research Hospital where she died.
Police officers who observed the girl’s body at the hospital noticed bruising on the girl’s
upper legs. The girl’s forehead was swollen, and she had 1-inch cuts on
her back.
The Jackson County Medical Examiner examined the girl’s body and noticed
“anal tearing which could have been caused by sexual assault.” An
attending doctor also believed the girl had been physically and
sexually abused.
An autopsy performed yesterday revealed that the marks on the girls’ back could have been caused by a belt. The doctor who performed the autopsy also reported that the girl had “blunt force head injuries,” “deep bruising of the heart” and lacerations of the thymus, liver, pancreas. The preliminary cause of death: “multiple blunt force injuries to the head, chest and torso.” The doctor also reported “probable sexual assault based on a tear of the anus of the victim.” The girls’ death was ruled a homicide.
Detectives interviewed Tinsley yesterday. They asked Tinsley how he disciplined the girl. He admitted spanking her on the butt, back and thighs with his hand or a belt. He admitted taking it “too far” some days. He also told detectives that he spanked the girl with a belt four or five times on Wednesday because the girl took off her diaper and defecated on the floor.
A detective asked Tinsley if he took the spanking too far. “I guess,” Tinsley told the detectives. “I took it too far.”
