Jessica Bortle (Pensacola Police Dept.) and Jasmine Singletary (WSYX screenshots)
A 36-year-old Alabama woman is preparing to stand trial for allegedly killing her 14-year-old special needs daughter, slamming a table into the girl's abdomen and "obliterating" her liver as the child was confined to a hospital bed in Florida. Jessica Bortle is facing one count of manslaughter and one count of aggravated battery in the 2021 slaying of young Jasmine Singletary, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Jury selection for the trial began on Monday and opening statements are scheduled to begin on Thursday. Assistant State Attorney Nathaniel Sebastian is leading the prosecution while Assistant Public Defender Marci McCoy is representing Bortle. Circuit Judge Linda Nobles will preside over the proceedings.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Pensacola Police Department on July 21, 2021, responded to a call from the District One Medical Examiner's Office regarding a homicide at Sacred Heart Hospital involving a 14-year-old girl with a neuromuscular disorder.
The medical examiner told police that the victim, Jasmine, had been admitted to the hospital on July 8 suffering from a "closed head injury of suspicious origins." However, the child died in her hospital room five days later after mysteriously sustaining "massive injuries similar to those found on traffic crash victims."
An autopsy performed by the medical examiner showed that Jasmine suffered two fractured ribs and that her liver had been "ripped open due to blunt force trauma."
"[The doctor] described the liver as obliterated and that the trauma caused [Jasmine] to die within minutes of receiving the injury," police wrote in the affidavit.
At the time of the injury, Jasmine was confined to the bed in her hospital room and was accompanied by only her mother, Bortle, and her grandmother, Rose Mathis. Surveillance footage in the hospital hallway showed Bortle exiting her daughter's room and "shaking and flexing her hand as if in pain" just moments before hospital staff discovered her daughter was unconscious.
Police said Bortle initially "lied" to investigators by claiming she had no idea what could have caused her daughter's injuries, but eventually admitted to striking the girl with a hospital table in a fit of rage.
"Bortle told me that while in the hospital room, Jasmine began to cuss at her because she was mad about color crayons. Bortle became angry with Jasmine because she was cussing and the door to the room was opened," the affidavit states. "Bortle slammed the hospital table into Jasmine's abdomen and then leaned onto the table with her weight."
Bortle said she continued to lean into the table even after her daughter said she was in pain and "acknowledged the responsibility for causing the injury that killed Jasmine."
The victim's grandmother told a similar story, telling investigators that "s— hit the fan" just before the incident. The grandmother said Bortles initially moved the hospital table to Jasmine so she could color, but the girl was soon "cussing" and "throwing and breaking crayons," leading to Bortle's violent outburst.
Investigators ultimately determined that Bortle leaned on the table with all of her weight for so long that she "ground the table into Jasmine's liver which caused the 'obliteration'" described by the doctor.
If convicted on both counts, Bortle will face up to 45 years in prison.
Follow Law&Crime:
