[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
An Indiana man is facing murder and aggravated battery charges after his girlfriend’s 21-month-old baby died in his care — and he initially tried to blame the death on the family dog!
On the 24th of last month, police in the Indiana city of Lawrenceburg were called to St. Elizabeth Hospital Dearborn to investigate a child’s suspicious head injury. The child had been taken to the hospital by the mother’s boyfriend, Jesse Sartin (pictured above, in his mugshot). Once there, the little girl was rushed into emergency surgery to treat major skull injuries. The girl eventually died a week later despite doctors’ best efforts to save her. And it was the extent of the baby’s injuries that was concerning to both emergency room personnel and police officers.
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According to Dearborn County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens via a press release, detectives began to investigate the 25-year-old not long after he brought the baby to the hospital. Per Deddens’ release, Sartin was watching the child while his girlfriend was at work. He reported to medical staff at the ER that the little girl had been “injured in an accident.” Doctors weren’t able to save the little girl, who died on August 1. Medical examiners soon after ruled her death a homicide.
When investigators reached out to Sartin about what happened, he initially told them the child had been standing on an ottoman and had been knocked off of it by a dog when he walked into the kitchen to grab her bottle. Cops didn’t buy that claim, though. Remember how the doctors were worried about the extent of the injuries? Per court docs obtained by WLWT, doctors reported the child’s brain had herniated, and was “leaking through her ears.” The subsequent autopsy revealed “swelling to the brain, significant hemorrhages in both eyes and hemorrhaging in the spinal cord.”
oh god…
The reason it’s important to explain the the graphic details is because those injuries were far more severe than what would have happened had the child simply fallen a few feet. They were instead far more consistent with shaken baby syndrome. In a release to the media, Deddens’ office stated:
“Following an investigation, it was determined that Sartin allegedly shook the little girl for about 20 seconds.”
A few days later, during another interrogation, Sartin allegedly admitted to shaking the child after she’d taken a bath. He told cops she was “being aggressive and flailing her arms not wanting to get out of the bathtub.” Even more horrifically, he copped to shaking her for about 20 seconds, just as cops had theorized, and claimed that wasn’t even his first time shaking the child.
OMG…
Smith was officially arrested and processed into Dearborn County Jail on August 2. Then, on Monday of this week, he appeared in court for his arraignment where he was ordered to be held without bond. He was also ordered to have no contact with the victim’s mother.
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Before he was forbidden from having contact with the child’s mother, though, Sartin wrote her a letter. That message was read aloud during his court appearance on Monday, too. And it indicated some pretty damning admissions of its own. In the letter, per WLWT, Sartin wrote:
“Once the bubbles were gone, I drained the water and put her toys away. I tried to pull her out but she didn’t want to get out. Screaming and swinging her arms. I tried to pull her out but she kept pulling away and I was getting upset. Baby, I’m so upset. I shook her trying to get her to calm down.”
Just… unimaginable. Such an absolutely tragic and horrible situation.
Sartin’s next court date is set for October on the murder and aggravated battery charges he now faces.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office]
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