Left: Jesse Smith. Right: Jordan Moore (Santa Rosa County Jail).
A mother and her boyfriend are facing charges after a toddler girl suffered fractures to her arm, leg and ribs, a bite mark and bruising throughout her body, along with her two bottom teeth being knocked out, according to Florida authorities.
Jordan Moore, 28, stands accused of child neglect while her boyfriend Jesse Smith, 29, is charged with aggravated child abuse. The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office in the Sunshine State’s Panhandle began investigating Jan. 8 when the girl, whose age was not revealed, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries in various stages of healing that authorities believe were the result of child abuse, a probable cause arrest affidavit said.
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Moore told police that she had custody of the kids and they were with their father from Dec. 27 and Jan. 5. She allegedly said she noticed some cuts on her elbow, but it didn’t seem serious. Cops say the abuse occurred while Smith was watching her. In a post Miranda interview with detectives, Moore denied her boyfriend abused the girl. She blamed the fractures on “Brittle Bone Disease” but doctors ran tests that showed the girl did not suffer from the genetic ailment, which causes bones to be easily breakable. Moore also insisted Smith did not watch the girl for long periods of time. Messages on her phone, however, tell a different story.
Moore allegedly texted her co-defendant on Dec. 22: “You purposely hit her head on the door. All I did was ask why you did that then you threw her in the backseat. You act like you hate my kids and it hurts. I’m so good to your kids and treat them like they are my own and you act like you can’t stand [the victim].”
The mother also texted with one of her family members while he was watching the child in early December. The family member works in “close relations” with the Department of Children and Families, the affidavit said. Cops do not expand upon what the family member’s role with DCF in the affidavit. He is not facing charges.
He expressed concern about the girl’s injuries and said she looked “horrible” and it looked like she had been “punched in the face,” cops wrote. It appeared whenever the girl would come see him over several days in December, she would show up with new injuries, according to the affidavit.
“Don’t take her out in public,” the family member allegedly advised, worrying that DCF could step in and remove her from the home.
By Dec. 23, the family member asked Moore if the girl could stay with him. “Someone is abusing this kid!,” he allegedly wrote.
Moore claimed to the family member that the injuries came from falls and bug bites, per the affidavit.
Smith denied to detectives that he was the one abusing the girl, allegedly saying he would playfully pinch the girl’s nose. However her sibling allegedly said the nose pinching was more nefarious. The sibling said Smith would get “maddy maddy maddy” when the girl would cry and he would take tweezers to pinch her nose and cover her mouth, according to the affidavit.
Cops arrested Moore and Smith on March 1 and prosecutors formally filed charges on March 10. Smith remains at the Santa Rosa County Jail on a $300,000 bond while Moore has since bonded out. Their next court date is scheduled for March 27.
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