Essex County Man Sentenced to Life in Prison After Killing Baby Daughter

A man who was charged with killing his 20-month-old daughter in 2011 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Travis Hartsfield, Jr., 28, of Newark, was sentenced to life in prison, which is 75 years in New Jersey, according to a news release from Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. A jury convicted Hartsfield of killing the baby, Asiyah Hartsfield, in October of this year.

Hartsfield, who was unemployed, was given the responsibility of watching and taking care of the baby while the mother went to one of her two jobs. According to the prosecutor’s office, Hartsfield became angry that Asiyah would not eat and punched her in the chest, causing internal bleeding and ultimately killing her.

“He killed his own daughter, his own flesh and blood. This was murder. When he became a father, he had one job in life that he had to succeed at and he failed miserably,’’ Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Michele Miller said according to the news release. “The last image Asiyah had was an image of her father, a person she looked at with loving eyes and a person she thought loved her, violently attacking her.”

“He punched her because she refused to eat her macaroni and cheese and then he turned his back on her and went back to his video games. He smoked a cigarette while she was bleeding to death less than two feet away,” Miller said.

On March 14, 2011, the baby’s mother left for work and left the child with Hartsfield. Around 12:30 a.m., he called the mother saying the baby was not breathing and was ice cold to the touch, according to the news release. The mother told Hartsfield to call 911 and the baby was taken to the hospital by emergency medical services, where she was pronounced dead.

Hartsfield admitted to authorities he punched the baby, who weighed just 22 pounds and had both a history of eating problems and a heart murmur, the prosecutor’s office said.

Assistant Prosecutor Miller said physical evidence contradicted Hartsfield’s version of events. Miller said the baby had bruising on her face, head, arms and mouth, and said those injuries were inconsistent with someone making a split decision or Hartsfield’s defense of CPR being the cause for the majority of her injuries, the news release said.

Hartsfield will have to serve 85 percent of his prison sentence before becoming eligible for parole.