A 36-year-old mother from Alabama has been sentenced to a little over a year in prison for her involvement in the tragic death of her 14-year-old special-needs daughter in 2021.
Jessica Bortle was ordered by the Escambia County Circuit Court Judge to serve a sentence of one year and one day for the abuse inflicted on Jasmine Singletary, with credit for 212 days already served.
Initially, Bortle faced charges of negligent manslaughter and aggravated child abuse after she allegedly became angry at her daughter for misbehaving and responded by slamming a table into the girl's abdomen while she was confined to a hospital bed.
However, a jury later found her guilty of lesser charges, including battery and child abuse.
Following the verdict, the battery conviction was vacated, as it was considered subsumed within the child abuse charge, meaning the two charges were combined into one. Bortle was also ordered to serve three years of probation upon her release.
As reported earlier, officers responded to a call from the District One Medical Examiner’s Office regarding a homicide at Sacred Heart Hospital involving Jasmine, who had a neuromuscular disorder. The medical examiner revealed that the victim had suffered a closed head injury of suspicious origins and died after experiencing massive injuries similar to those from traffic accidents.
An autopsy showed that Jasmine had two fractured ribs and a liver that had been severely damaged due to blunt force trauma.
Jasmine was confined to her hospital bed at the time of the injury and was accompanied only by her mother, Bortle, and her grandmother, Rose Mathis. Surveillance footage captured Bortle leaving her daughter's room moments before hospital staff discovered the unconscious girl.
Bortle initially denied knowledge of the cause of her daughter's injuries but eventually admitted to striking Jasmine with a hospital table in anger.
During her defense, Bortle claimed it was an accident and that she did not intend to harm her daughter. The jury was instructed by Judge Noble to consider lesser charges if the evidence did not support a manslaughter conviction.
To find her guilty of battery, jurors needed to determine that Bortle had intentionally touched or struck Jasmine against her will. For the child abuse charge, they needed to find that Bortle had willfully abused her daughter through an intentional act that could reasonably be expected to result in physical injury.
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