Antioch girl, believed tortured by aunt, died of "severe malnutrition," report says
Jazzmin Davis, 15, weighed 78 pounds and had scars and clothes-iron burns over her body
John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
MARTINEZ — An Antioch teenager who police believe was kept indoors and tortured by her aunt for at least a year died of severe malnutrition and had scars and burn marks all over her body, as well as thick scarring and other injuries beneath the skin, according to an autopsy report released Thursday.
Jazzmin Davis stood 5 feet 7 inches and weighed just 78 pounds when she died, the report said. The scars and bruising — some old, some new — appeared on her "scalp, face, neck, torso and extremities."
The description of her injuries runs nine single-spaced pages in the report. She had burn marks across her breasts and stomach that appeared to come from a clothes iron; overlapping scars on her shoulders and back; hemorrhaging beneath her skin in several areas; and large, hard bony growths on both of her femurs, the report states. Five of her teeth were fractured, "probably struck by some hard object," according to a forensic odontologist.
Jazzmin died Sept 2. When police arrived at the Davis house on the 3700 block of Killdeer Drive, they found her naked body in the bedroom she shared with her twin brother. Her body was riddled with open wounds and sores over her head, face, body, arms and legs, court records show. Among the items that police took from the house was a bloody and broken wooden closet rod, a belt with a padlock attached to the end and a clothes iron.
She also was beaten across the face and head with a carpet tack strip, Antioch police Sgt. Diane Aguinaga said earlier this week. Jazzmin's twin brother suffered similar abuses, said Aguinaga. MediaNews is not naming the brother, who was taken into the custody of the Contra Costa County child welfare system.
"The brother is the living version of her," Aguinaga said.
Shemeeka Davis, the twins' aunt, remains in County Jail in Richmond in lieu of $1.5 million bail. In September she pleaded not guilty to Jazzmin's murder and the suspected abuse and torture of both twins. She is scheduled to appear next in court Dec. 2.
Davis, 38, had been their caregiver since they were infants, and had become their legal guardian a week before Jazzmin's death. Davis' three biological children appeared in good health, police said.
Records of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which oversaw the foster family, show that a caseworker last visited them in March and reported that Jazzmin was receiving C's in school and that both twins were "friendly, talkative and appeared to be very health(y)."
Yet Antioch school records show Jazzmin last attended school in June 2007. Police suspect that Shemeeka Davis may have doctored a report card that was found on the refrigerator. They also suspect she dressed both teens in long-sleeve clothing and coached them on how to act with social workers, said Aguinaga. Police believe the suspected abuse went on for perhaps two years.
"I think she played a good game and showed a good show," Aguinaga said of Shemeeka Davis.
One well-known forensic pathologist who inspected the report for MediaNews described its details as "awful."
"Did the social worker look at Jazzmin? Because she's had bruises and lacerations, old and new ones, that go back more than six months, I would say," said Dr. Michael Baden, a former medical examiner for New York City. Baden has been a consultant or expert witness in the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, the death of comedian John Belushi and other high-profile cases.
"She had not only severe malnutrition, but has whip marks with a belt or a wire, like a telephone wire, that are scarred. It takes awhile for those scars to happen," said Baden. "She has a lot of injuries to the inside of the mouth, which are characteristic of child abuse. ... This is one of the worst I've ever read about."