A 22-year-old Minneapolis man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday for brutally beating his 20-month-old daughter.
Ticortier Collins was caring for his daughter Rae'Ana Hall the morning of Jan. 3, 2016. By midafternoon, Collins had taken her to the emergency room, claiming she and another child had run into each other's heads while playing, according to the criminal charges.
Doctors discovered that the girl's injuries included hemorrhaging in the brain, several rib fractures, several pelvic fractures, spinal disk compression, a broken tailbone and blood poisoning, which nearly killed her.
Collins pleaded guilty to first-degree assault last week, and admitted that he punched and kicked his daughter, according to the Hennepin County attorney's office. When asked about an injury to the side of her head, he acknowledged for the first time that he hurled his daughter against the wall, drawing gasps from people in the courtroom.
The Hennepin County attorney's office, on behalf of county social workers, also took Collins to court in November to terminate his parental rights to three children, who included the victim, a newborn subsequently born to the same mother and a child born to another woman.
At Collins' sentencing Monday, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Christina Warren said that it was a miracle the girl survived.
The girl's mother, Rae'Chelle Hall, one of three people who gave victim impact statements, said that she herself now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In handing down the 20-year sentence, Hennepin County District Judge Margaret Daly said that children trust the people who care for them, and that the girl must have realized how helpless she was and that the pain being inflicted upon her was by someone she loved and trusted.
