Tradezsha Trenay Bibbs and Brielle Robinson (Harris County District Attorney’s Office)
A 29-year-old mother in Texas will spend the rest of her days behind bars for killing her own infant daughter, beating the 4-month-old child to death. Harris County Judge Robert Johnson on Monday ordered Tradezsha Trenay Bibbs to serve a sentence of life in prison for the brutal slaying of young Brielle Robinson, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors at trial argued that Bibbs decided to kill her daughter “because the baby’s father no longer wanted a relationship” with her. Bibbs was convicted by a jury on one count of felony murder in her daughter’s death following a one-week trial.
“Our office stands up for all victims, but a baby is the most innocent of victims,” District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement. “We believed that a life sentence was appropriate for this brutal murder and a Harris County jury agreed.”
Bibbs had previously been convicted on one count of capital murder, but that verdict was overturned after an appellate court reasoned that the jury was not permitted to apply the felony murder standard in Bibbs’ initial case.
According to court documents, officers with the Houston Police Department on April 16, 2016, responded to a call about the suspicious death of a child at Texas Children’s Hospital. Doctors at the hospital told investigators that the infant was brought in suffering from multiple rib fractures in different states of healing and other traumas involving “several organ systems,” including a brain bleed and laceration of the liver.
Several doctors concluded that the baby’s injuries resulted from physical abuse and could not have been sustained by a “fall from a car seat,” as Bibbs initially claimed. In a recorded interview, Bibbs eventually admitted to investigators that she lied about her daughter falling from the car seat.
Bibbs said that she checked into a hotel two days prior to her daughter’s death and “started to not care about the child’s wellbeing,” per the affidavit.
“The defendant further stated that whenever the child started to cry, she picked her up by the arms and dropped her on the bed, causing her to bounce off the bed and land onto the hard floor,” the document states. “[Bibbs] stated that she did this two to three times and whenever the child would start crying, she began to ‘pop’ the child in the face. [Bibbs] stated that she also punched the child in the ribs and in the chest repeatedly until she stopped crying. [Bibbs] stated that each time the child would cry after the initial beating, she would continue to ‘pop’ the child in her face, chest, and ribs”
It wasn’t until the child stopped breathing completely that Bibbs called 911, per the document.
Investigators who interviewed Bibbs said they believed she killed her daughter “out of vengeance against the child’s father,” court documents state.
Bibbs later said she believed she was suffering from postpartum depression but did not seek help.
Assistant District Attorney Keaton Forcht, one of the chief prosecutors in the case, applauded the sentence.
“Bibbs deserved a life sentence for what she did to her child,” Forcht said. “She beat her countless times and seemed to care about as much about the death of her daughter as she did about the life of her daughter.”
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