Andrew Isaacs, 27, was the stepdad to his wife’s adorable baby daughter, Joylynne. But he was supposed be looking after the 22-month-old last Friday night when he called 911 to report that the little girl — who would have celebrated her 2-year birthday in August — was not breathing.
That call came at about 1:35 a.m., and 25 minutes later, the little girl was pronounced dead at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona. She would never see that second birthday. But why? What happened?
Isaacs admitted to police that he was “roughhousing” with the little girl. He even admitted to “smacking” the little girl in the mouth earlier that evening as a form of discipline.
Doctors found bruising on the girl’s face, head, and ear, but Isaacs said that Joylynne, known as Jojo, had fallen on her face. He also blamed the bruises around the child’s ear on her four-year-old brother — Isaacs’ stepson — saying the boy pushed his sister into a wall.
But it was that same four-year-old who made an offhand remark to investigators that sealed their suspicions.
“The 4-year-old made a spontaneous statement to his mother and a patrol officer that his ‘daddy had hit his sister in the face real hard,’ ” wrote a Mesa Police detective in an official report.
But there was even more. The incident that killed little Jojo was not the first allegation of abuse against the little girl and his wife’s, Aminda Giebel’s, other two kids. In fact, the the Arizona Department of Child Services had five previous reports on record claiming that Isaacs beat the children.
Not only that, but in December, the stepdad reportedly gave Jojo the powerful prescription narcotic Percocet to keep her quiet, according to a report received by the state DCS.
Percocet is an opiate drug combining oxycodone and acetaminophen.
Jojo’s mom told KPHO-TV that she had no idea that her husband was physically abusing her kids.
“I just never in a million years thought that I would meet a man or anybody that could do that to a child,” she told the station. She also said she was “disgusted” by the allegation that her husband was doping her baby daughter with narcotics.
Isaacs, however, was named as a drug addict in court documents from a 2013 case in which he pleaded guilty possession charges.
In an Oklahoma case last week , that state’s DHS had investigated a mother 34 times before finding four of her 12 kids living in conditions of filth and squalor, and arresting the mom.
DCS director Greg McKay also said that Andrew Isaacs was a suspect in earlier child abuse reports, and that his agency was now investigating what role it may have played in the death of little Jojo. “Absolutely we failed this child,” he said.
[Images: Maricopa County Jail, KPHO-TV]