Inset left: Jeanie Ditty (Fayetteville Police Department). Inset right: Macy Grace Ditty (North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys). Background: The Cape Fear Valley Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, N.C. (Google Maps).
A North Carolina woman will spend the rest of her life behind bars for killing her toddler daughter by hitting her upward of 40 times.
On Friday, Jeanie Kassandra Ditty, 33, was found guilty by a jury of her peers in Cumberland County on one count each of murder in the first degree and felonious child abuse over the death of 2-year-old Macy Grace Ditty, according to a press release issued by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.
In quick fashion, Special Superior Court Judge J. Stanley Carmical sentenced the defendant to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge. The judge also imposed a sentence of 157 to 201 months in prison for the child abuse charge.
The investigation began in December 2015 when paramedics brought the victim to Cape Fear Valley Regional Medical Center, according to a contemporaneous report by Raleigh-based NBC affiliate WRAL.
The child was unresponsive when she arrived at the hospital, police said. Medical staff found bruises all over her body and a preliminary investigation suggested her injuries were consistent with child abuse.
"Once they determined that the child had severe injuries, they actually had to move the child to UNC-Chapel Hill's hospital, and there they discovered that the injuries were very serious, and the child died within a couple of days," Fayetteville Police Department spokesperson Lt. David McLaurin told the TV station.
Macy died in the hospital two days later.
"A CT scan revealed non-survivable brain injuries sustained within the prior 8 to 24 hours—a period during which the defendant was the sole caregiver with access to the child," the press release reads. "At the time, both Ditty and Macy's father were active-duty service members in the U.S. Army."
While she was in the hospital, the child's father was called back from overseas to make the decision about whether to take her off life support, according to The Fayetteville Observer.
One month after the child died, the defendant contacted Pennsylvania-based photographer Sunny Jo and requested "after life" photos of herself and the toddler, CBS News reported.
"She told me her daughter had passed away by choking on a banana, and that choking gave her seizures which made her lose oxygen to the brain and then she passed away," Jo later told WRAL.
The photographer passed that information on to law enforcement.
On March 23, 2016, the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the child's death was a homicide.
"Once we saw that report, it indicated that the child had not died of natural causes," District Attorney Billy West told WRAL. "The cause of death was listed as homicide and we proceeded with warrants."
On March 24, Ditty turned herself in.
At the time, Zachary Earl Keefer, 42, the defendant's then-boyfriend, was charged alongside Ditty. All the charges against him were dismissed in November 2020, however, when investigators determined he was not present at the time the injuries were inflicted on the little girl.
The case initially went to trial in 2020 — but ended with a hung jury voting 10-2 in favor of the defendant's guilt.
Jury selection for the second trial began earlier this month. During a multiweek trial, 16 witnesses testified, WRAL reported.
"At trial, the state forensic pathologist testified that Macy suffered at least 40 separate physical blows," the press release goes on.
Jurors found Ditty guilty after less than three hours of deliberations.
"Macy was a precious toddler who was loved by so many people," Special Prosecutor Lisa Coltrain said in a statement. "They carried the grief of losing Macy while always continuing to fight for her story to be told and justice to be served, and though it was a long road, it finally reached a conclusion."