Dad Charged In Severe Beating Of 20-Month-Old Daughter
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minneapolis father has been charged in the severe beating of his 20-month-old daughter, which left her with brain injuries.
Ticortier Collins is charged with first-degree assault. Investigators say he beat his daughter so badly that she also has a lacerated spleen, rib and pelvic fractures.
Rae'Ana Hall is in critical condition, and her prognosis remains guarded.
Police say Collins turned himself in to investigators Thursday. They say his story about what happened to his daughter changed several times.
In the end, prosecutors believe the evidence shows he is responsible for the severe beating.
While the family of little Rae'Ana continues to keep vigil by her bedside, investigators are busy piecing together a case against her father.
"Severe head injuries, broken pelvis, broken ribs -- just about every injury you can see or think of," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said.
He says the toddler's mother, Rae'Chelle Hall, told investigators she left the child with Collins while she went to work.
"I left for work at 10 o'clock and got a call around almost 4," Hall said.
She says Collins told her several different stories about what happened to the child. Freeman says he repeated those stories for investigators.
"He came up with a lot of different stories. He suggested he went to a friend's house and two kids bumped heads," Freeman said. "You don't get traumatic brain injury from banging heads as little kids."
Freeman says a surveillance camera at Hall's apartment shows the mother leaving before 10 a.m. Collins was caught on camera leaving for five minutes and returning to the apartment around 2 p.m.
The next image shows Collins leaving the apartment with his daughter, heading to Hennepin County Medical Center.
"All of the life-threatening injuries that occurred occurred that day, as best as medical science can tell us,' Freeman said. "And it's just that this dad to his own child lost it. We've charged him with first-degree assault, which is the most serious crime we can charge short of death."
Freeman says he has asked that factors be considered so Collins, if convicted, will get an enhanced sentence. Collins can face more than 12 years behind bars.
A fund has been set up to help the young mother and her child. Click here for more information.
