A Florida man will be locked up for life for the death of a 2-year-old girl who died from a serious spinal injury while in his care, about a week after the girl’s mother broke up with him.
The horrible crime that killed Jacklyn Schwingel in May 2022 was linked to Travis Ray Thompson, who is 27 years old. He was found guilty of one count of first-degree murder.
This week, the jury discussed for just under two hours before finding the person guilty. After that, Judge Barbara Kissner of the Fifth Judicial Circuit gave the person a life term.
In a Thursday news release, State Attorney Bill Gladson talked about the punishment from Wednesday. He said, “This monster stole the life of an innocent child, and today, the justice system made sure he will never walk free again.” “Being locked up is too good for this kind of bad behaviour.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says that Thompson hurt the girl on that day until her spine was “completely severed.” The girl had to wait for thirty minutes before she was taken to the hospital.
Based on how bad the break was and how it happened, the sheriff’s office said in their first press statement that Thompson hit the victim in the lower back and applied a lot of force over time to her upper and lower body from the front.
In an examination report, it was written that Jacklyn died from serious injuries that caused her lumbar spine to become separate. The document says that “significant, gradual force was placed simultaneously on the front of (the victim’s) upper torso/head and lower body,” which is what broke the bone.
Additionally, the girl had heavy abdominal bleeding because of these injuries.
It was found that on the evening of May 2, 2022, Jacklyn’s mother was staying the night in Thompson’s tent so that she could help him fix his car the next day.
The suspect went back to the camper early the next morning after dropping off a bigger child at the school bus stop. She says that he took care of her young daughter when her mother went to work late in the morning.
Thompson is said to have said that he went back to the site to use the bathroom after spending fifteen minutes with Jacklyn at a nearby lake. He is said to have said that the child was last seen on a couch.
The arrest report says that Jackyn was limp and ‘gurgling’ when the defendant told the police that he heard a big noise and came out of the bathroom, but he was still breathing shallowly.
The police report says that several calls were made before the girl’s mother came back to the campsite.
After that, they went to the hospital with Jacklyn.
The victim’s mother told Thompson to call 911 when she realised the victim had stopped breathing while they were on their way to the hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.
Jacklyn died three hours after he got there.
The staff at the AdventHealth Waterman hospital in Tavares, a small city about 40 miles northwest of Orlando, thought the girl’s injuries and trip to the emergency room were strange. When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they began to look into the situation.
Thompson said he didn’t know “how or why” Jacklyn died, which proved again that he wasn’t guilty.
However, detectives found that Thompson had been seeing the girl’s mother before she broke up with him about a week before the toddler’s death.
Investigators are also said to have found text messages in which he talked about how angry he was with Jacklyn’s mother.
After the sentencing, Billy Woods, the sheriff of Marion County, said, “I’m so proud of my Major Crimes detectives for working so hard on this heartbreaking case.” Their hard work helped get justice for a child who wasn’t guilty.
