A Marion County man arrested after the fatal beating death of a 3-year-old girl now faces homicide charges while the girl’s mother was also arrested for child neglect.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office announced the new charges Wednesday in the February death of Paisley Brown. Jeroen Jarrel Coombs, 32, had already been in custody for aggravated child abuse stemming from the Feb. 19 incident. He now faces a new charge of second-degree murder.
Paisley’s mother, Jennifer Farrah Kendrick, 26, has now been arrested on two counts of felony child neglect in addition to a felony probation charge.
Sheriff’s deputies had responded to a residence on NE 44th Avenue in Citra, north of Ocala, after a report that the 3-year-old was unresponsive. She was transported to an area hospital where she later died from her injuries, according to a sheriff’s office press release.
Deputies had been told Paisley had been struck multiple times by Coombs, who was attempting to leave the scene, the release stated. He was detained while the major crimes division completed its investigation.
Detectives discovered Coombs had been home alone with children at the residence that morning and while he told the mother, Kendrick, that her daughter was unresponsive at 10:58 a.m., a 911 call was not made for another 40 minutes.
Coombs told detectives he had caused the injuries and was arrested that day. In a follow-up interview with Kendrick on March 4, she told detectives she did not know about the abuse, but was confronted with evidence that she was aware that Coombs had previously bound and abused her daughter.
Kendrick admitted she failed to protect her daughter and that her lack of intervention allowed the abuse to continue, which contributed to the 3-year-old’s death, the sheriff’s office stated.
Kendrick was transported to the Marion County Jail, where Coombs has remained since his initial arrest. The two are being held without bond.
