ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.—A father has now been arrested for failing to protect his young daughter from his girlfriend who is accused of murdering her in the Montverde home they all shared.
Lojuan Sessions, 26, was arrested in Orange County Friday on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child and a violation of probation and is being held on no bond.
“Lojuan Sessions, by and through both statements and digital forensics of cellular phones collected during this investigation did encourage, suggest, plan, permit and assist Tyshael Martin in the implementation and execution of various ‘disciplinary’ processes to include rigorous physical exercise, extreme physical abuse, and mental abuse of Jamaria Sessions,” a probable cause affidavit states.
Text message conversations between Sessions and Martin included jokes about Jamaria’s abuse and comments about “bootcamp.” Jamaria, 9, who would have started 4th grade this school year, was savagely beaten by Martin and bitten by a 103-pound rottweiler, and some of the abuse was captured on video.
Althea Chenault, Jamaria’s maternal grandmother and one-time guardian, is relieved both Martin and Sessions have been arrested and are in jail.
“He deserves to be there,” Chenault told Inside Lake Friday, “he’s a part of this.”
Details about Jamaria’s abuse were released Thursday following Martin’s arrest, details so horrific, they brought tears to the eyes of seasoned law enforcement officers with no ties to the case.
Jamaria was found deceased June 17 after a 911 caller reported she was unresponsive and cold to the touch. The caller was not identified by name, but the phone number is associated with Martin, according to the affidavit. Lake EMS responded to the scene, pronounced her deceased and requested the Lake County Sheriff’s Office respond to the scene due to the significant number of injuries Jamaria’s tiny body had.
LCSO worked on the case for more than two months and on Tuesday received a 26-page autopsy report detailing Jamaria’s injuries that caused her death, including complications of multiple blunt injuries of the head, torso and extremities and thermal injury of the right foot.” In addition to the dog attacks, and severe beatings, Jamaria was burned by boiling water in the hours before her death.
While Martin appears to be Jamaria’s main abuser, her father was “complicit and failed to take any reasonable action to protect his child from harm” the LCSO detective stated in the affidavit.
This is not the first time Sessions has been arrested for crimes involving children. In January 2019, Sessions was accused of fleeing from a Haines City Police Department officer after the officer found a bag of drugs, later determined to be amphetamine, in plain view in the vehicle Sessions was driving during a traffic stop, according to an arrest affidavit.
The officer put the bag of suspected drugs on the roof of Sessions’ vehicle, and asked Sessions to step out. Sessions put the vehicle in drive, took off, struck a vehicle being driven by an undercover Polk County deputy and then crashed into a palm tree. Martin was in the passenger seat with a small unrestrained child in her lap, and three young girls were in the back seat—not wearing seatbelts. Jamaria was not one of those children, according to Chenault.
Sessions was arrested for four counts of child neglect, possession of amphetamine with intent to sell, trafficking in amphetamine, possession of a vehicle while trafficking drugs, possession of marijuana, fleeing a law enforcement officer at a high speed, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving on a suspended license.
He later pleaded guilty, according to Polk County Clerk of Court records, and was sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years of probation. Last month he was arrested at his job in Eustis for violating two conditions of probation, including failing to pay his monthly $30 cost of supervision fee and violating his curfew. According to a warrant in that case, Sessions was required to be at his residence between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and on June 7 he did not comply with that condition.
Following his release from prison, Sessions went to a school in Orange County and picked Jamaria and her little sister, now 6, up without permission in October 2023. The girls had been living with Chenault following the death of their mother Tadrina Dort in 2022. In December 2023, Jamaria’s sister went to live with Lojuan Sessions’ mother because she was “causing strain” in the relationship between Sessions and Martin. According to the affidavits in this case, LCSO believes Jamaria’s abuse started as soon as she began living with the couple.
Both Sessions and Martin are being held on no bond.
BREAKING NEWS: Arrest made in murder of 9-year-old Montverde girl – Inside Lake
Father of young girl found dead in Montverde last month arrested on unrelated charges – Inside Lake
Child found deceased at Montverde home, Medical Examiner to determine cause of death – Inside Lake
