Police have arrested a 34-year-old woman for allegedly killing her special needs 14-year-old daughter while the teenager was in the hospital.
The Pensacola Police Department held a press conference on Tuesday where Chief Eric Randall and a representative for the State's Attorney's Office spoke about Jessica Bortle's arrest, True Crime Daily reported.
Randall shared that Bortle took her daughter Jasmine Singletary to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital on July 8 for an infection. Singletary was a "special needs patient with neuromuscular disorder," according to Randall.
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On July 13, Singletary was reportedly in her hospital room with Bortle and her grandmother when she "unexpectedly lost consciousness and stopped breathing," Randall said. Hospital staff attempted life-saving measures, but she died.
In the press conference, Randall shared that the autopsy concluded Singletary "suffered massive injuries," which were "not present when she was admitted to the hospital."
The medical examiner went on to share that the injuries found were "so severe that Jasmine would have died only minutes after receiving them." They concluded that it "had to have occurred while she was confined to her hospital bed."
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After several interviews and investigating what could have happened, Randall said they obtained an arrest warrant for Bortle on Friday. She was charged with manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison.
Bortle allegedly became upset when Singletary threw crayons across the room, and the arrest report cited that Bortle told police she "slammed the hospital table into Singletary's abdomen and then leaned onto the table with her weight," WEAR-TV reported.
The Pensacola News Journal reported that Singletary's liver was crushed and "ripped open" as a result. The injuries were compared to those found in "traffic crash victims," the report said.
Bortle has been sent to Escambia County Jail, and her bond was set at $500,000.
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