Mpls. Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Nearly Beating His Toddler To Death

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A 22-year-old Minneapolis man has been sentenced for brutally beating his 20-month-old daughter last year -- nearly killing her, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.

On Monday, Ticortier Collins was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection to the Jan. 3, 2016 incident. He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault last week.

Investigators say Collins beat his daughter so badly that she had hemorrhaging in the brain, several rib fractures, several pelvic fractures, spinal disk compression, broken tailbone and blood poisoning.

The toddler's mother, Rae'Chelle Hall, told investigators she left the child with Collins while she went to work. She says Collins told her several different stories about what happened to the child.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says he repeated those stories for investigators.

"He came up with a lot of different stories. He suggested he went to a friend's house and two kids bumped heads," Freeman said. "You don't get traumatic brain injury from banging heads as little kids."

At the sentencing hearing, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Christina Warren said that it was a miracle the little girl survived, and credited the medical team, and the girl's mother and her support system.

The attorney's office says the judge was allowed to sentence Collins to 20 years in prison – not the guidelines sentence of 98 months – due to several aggravating factors that Collins admitted to at the plea hearing Tuesday. The aggravating factors include the victim's vulnerability at such a young age, the cruelty of the beating, Collins' position of authority as her father and that he was the only adult present at the time.

Collins received credit for 418 days already served in custody.