Death penalty sought for woman charged with fatally beating girlfriend’s toddler son with tire iron

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Prosecutors in Florida have decided to seek the dealth penalty for a woman charged with beating a Tallahassee toddler to death.

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According to WTXL and the Tallahassee Democrat, prosecutors revealed the news Monday in paperwork filed in the case of 23-year-old Te’Lea Jefferson, who was arrested in October after Tallahassee police received a report of a “suspicious death” from an area hospital. She is facing murder and aggravated battery charges, the news outlets reported.

Police said Jefferson brought the unresponsive boy, who was her girlfriend’s son, to the hospital shortly before 7 p.m. Oct. 19, WTXL reported. Doctors pronounced him dead soon after his arrival, according to the TV station.

Although Jefferson initially told police that the child had fallen off a sink as he brushed his teeth, striking a toilet, authorities said her story didn’t match the toddler’s wounds, which included scars from older injuries, the Democrat previously reported.

Jefferson, who lived with the child, his older brother and the boys’ mother, later told investigators that she had used a tire iron to hit the toddler, whom she was watching at the time, according to the news outlets. She also said she had struck both boys previously, WTXL reported in late October.

Jefferson remains jailed without bond, authorities said.

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