After being "on the run" for roughly a week, a Tennessee man has been arrested for killing a 2-year-old boy earlier this month, the local sheriff's office said.
Ashton Cole Sensing, 22, is facing charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and neglect after he admitted to throwing his girlfriend's young son against a wall and hitting the boy until he became unresponsive on December 2, according to an online statement by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) on Thursday.
PCSO deputies responded to a call on JD Randolph Road in Putnam County, Tennessee, about the toddler, 2-year-old Ventura Mora-Francisco, being found unresponsive.
Soon after deputies arrived on the scene, Mora-Francisco was rushed to nearby Cookeville Regional Medical Center before being transported to Vanderbilt Medical Children's Hospital for a "major traumatic brain injury," the sheriff's office said in the statement.
A PCSO detective in charge of the investigation interviewed the boy's mother, Sara Mora, and Sensing, who is the mother's live-in boyfriend, PCSO said. The detective found that Sensing was babysitting Mora-Francisco and three other children when the toddler sustained the fatal injury.
Newsweek reached out via email on Saturday to the PCSO for comment and an update on the case. At the time of publication, it was unclear whether Sensing had retained an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
During questioning with a PCSO detective, Sensing said while he was sleeping on the couch in the living room, Mora-Francisco had fallen into a small air vent on the floor and then fell again, which caused the toddler to become unresponsive. However, the sheriff's office said that Sensing eventually admitted to the detective that he had gotten "upset with the child on numerous occasions" as he was babysitting on December 2, which led to him "throwing the child into a wall and hitting the child making him become unresponsive."
Later that day, the PCSO detective received word from the Vanderbilt Medical Children's Hospital staff who said the child had "suffered a major traumatic brain injury, and his injuries were inoperable and nonsurvivable," the sheriff's office said. Mora-Francisco's injuries were also classified as "non-accidental blunt trauma."
The 2-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at Vanderbilt Medical Children's Hospital on December 5, PCSO said.
PCSO obtained a first-degree murder warrant as well as an aggravated child abuse warrant on December 7 to arrest Sensing but said that he had been "on the run" since a day prior and had "been avoiding law enforcement."
A week later on December 14, PCSO received information that Sensing had been spotted at a Dollar General on West Broad Street in Putnam County, where he was located and taken into custody. He is being held without bond at the Putnam County jail and is scheduled to appear in court on January 12, 2024, according to the sheriff's office.
PCSO Eddie Sheriff Farris thanked the public for their assistance in locating and arresting Sensing.
"This is a very sad and unfortunate outcome that resulted in the brutal death of an innocent child," Farris said. "There is no more important resource than the future of our children."
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