Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 5 Shocking Updates in Florida Girl's Torture Murder

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Jeroen Coombs faces new charges and possible penalties in the death of his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter, Paisley Brown. Paisley's death has outraged the community after detectives in Marion County said Coombs admitted to binding the girl as she slept and beating her on the day that she died. Now Coombs faces the possibility of the death penalty. Paisley's mother, Jennifer Kendrick, also faces charges and is exploring a mental health defense with an expert who worked on Casey Anthony's defense team. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at all of the new developments in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Jarrett Ferentino https://www.instagram.com/jarrettferentino/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jerome Coombs' legal troubles have gone from bad to worse as he stands accused of murdering his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter. I'll go through the latest developments in this heartbreaking case. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and this is crime fix. Three-year-old Paisley Brown died a horrific, terrible death. Detectives in Marion County, Florida, say Jerome Coombs, the boyfriend of Paisley's mother, beat this little girl. to death. And I have several updates in the case to tell you about some of them may leave you sickened and others just may simply leave you scratching your head. I'm going to go through all of it. And I have a great guest to help me. It's Jared Farentino. He's a former prosecutor and he's

going to join me here in just a few minutes. Right now, Jerome Coombs is charged with murdering Little Paisley. And what detectives say she went through is beyond horrific and sounds like torture. and now the state attorney in Marion County, Florida, says he thinks that Jerome Coombs should pay the ultimate price for Paisley's death. An eye for an eye. Death. The state attorney has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Jerome Coombs when he goes to trial for Paisley's murder. And the state attorney has also filed a new charge against Coombs, capital sexual assault, although we don't know which child investigators believe was the vizabeth. victim of that crime. Was it Paisley? We really don't know because the victim is a child, so information

about the crime is being kept under wraps. What detectives said Paisley endured was something no small child or person for that matter should ever go through. And there's more that I'll get to very shortly, but I want to recap what detectives say happened to Little Paisley. The three-year-old girl died on February 19th. Detectives say that Jerome Coombs was watching the Little girl and other young children in the home when they got a call that Paisley was unresponsive. When deputies got there, they said bystanders pointed right at Coombs and they said he was the one who did it. In a matter of hours, Coombs was in cuffs. Take a look. So at this time, being arrested for the car with a child,

I got in the car right over there. Do you need any water or anything like that before we get there? Once we get to the jail, you'll be able to ask them, all right? Yeah, they'll be able to get out of your phone. Now, detectives had interviewed Jerome Coombs, and they said that he told them that Paisley had started putting her hand down in her diaper and smearing feces around. And if you've ever had kids, you know, sometimes they just do things like this and you have to deal with it. But that's not what happened here. The detective said that Coombs' solution was to bind Paisley with a robe tie.

that belonged to her mother, Jennifer Kendrick, and then tape her legs with painter's tape. And it didn't just happen once. This is apparently something that happened night after night. This was February and an affidavit claim that Coombs had moved in with Jennifer Kendrick in January. Siblings of Paisley told detectives what they heard the morning Paisley died. One of the gut-wrenching parts of this is that we were being told by another juvenile that was in the home that they heard this attack taking place. and they knew what it was. They recognized the sound of this attack according to their statement. Court documents reveal really disturbing things that the children living in the home told detectives, a boy living in the home, told detectives that Coombs handcuffed him daily and beat him.

The allegations in this case are just beyond the pale. And at first, the sheriff's office said Paisley's mom, Jennifer Kendrick, was not a suspect. But things changed. They got a hold of her cell phone and they saw text messages. that showed she knew that her children were being mistreated. On January 6, 2026, more than a month before Paisley died, detectives say that Kendrick texted Coombs, babe, I know you raising him with me, but I need the popping with the shoe to calm down some

because I can't have the bruises on them if DCF pop up. If you want to pop them on top they close or whatever, cool, just no bruises. The very next day, January 7th, detectives say she texted Coombs again. No more popping. His whole ear is bruised up. I can't let DCFC that stuff, babe. On the day Paisley died, detectives said that Coombs told her that something was wrong with Paisley, but she stayed out, getting her nails done anyway, instead of coming home to check on her young daughter. Jennifer Kendrick faces child neglect, an aggravated manslaughter of a child charges.

And guess what? Her lawyer has filed paperwork with the courts saying that she intends to plead insanity or some other mental health defense. She has pleaded not guilty, but she is going to say, I didn't know that this was wrong because I have some type of mental health issue. Okay, so to talk about all of this, I want to bring in somebody who's tried some cases. in his time on the prosecution side of things. He is Jared Farentino. He is a former prosecutor, and he is the author of a great new book. It's entitled, Mother's Murder and Motivation. Thank you so much, Jarrett, for coming on. I have to ask you first off what you think about Jennifer Kendrick's attorney filing this notice of intent to rely on an insanity defense. Insanity that means she didn't know right from wrong.

when she's telling her boyfriend in a text message, hey, don't pop them too hard. You're leaving bruises. I can't have DCFC in that S-H-word stuff. You know, this is insane. So it's literally insane. So they're relying on a mental health defense of some sort. And then they're getting Casey Anthony's expert, Dr. Harry Crop,

to conduct the evaluation. Your thoughts? First, it's going to take more than Casey Anthony's expert to deal with this case. Hello, it's great to be with you. And this case has me, we're going to jump right into it because it's so unbelievable. But I'm not surprised that the defense has taken this approach because their client has painted them into a corner. She's admitted she was aware of ongoing abuse. the degree and how bad the abuse was.

And we know the results. We have a child that is dead at the hands of her caretaker, put in the hands of that caretaker by her mother. And mom has no option other than to say, I didn't know, it's too late for that. She admitted she knew. Or I'm insane. And I can't appreciate.

what I knew or the difference between right and wrong at this point. So I'm not surprised. I do not think it's going to carry the day. What I don't get is how, you know, and I'm no mental health expert here, but I've covered a few trials in my time and some cases. What I don't get is how you're going to say she was insane. And that clearly is one of those things is one of the criteria is like I was so mentally ill that I didn't know what was going on. Like I didn't know the difference between right and

wrong. And you're clearly on text messages saying, hey, I'm going to get in trouble with DCF if they come in and see bruises on my kid. So you got to like be careful how you're disciplining my children. So she's aware and cognizant of the fact that DCF is going to come down on her and maybe take these children away if they come by and see bruises on her child. That's a great point. Think of the narcissism in that statement. Don't stop hitting my children. Just don't bruise them so I don't get in trouble, right? So that's an appreciation of the consequences, which is a consideration whether or not someone is insane and knowledge of right from wrong. But just read the affidavit, right? Look at all of the intentional acts and things she was doing that morning. She goes,

from the DMV to the post. This is Jennifer. She goes, post office, DMV, goes and gets her nails done, finishes getting her nails done after she's told by Jay that the baby isn't responsive, by the way. These are all behaviors of someone who's in control. She says, I'm the primary breadwinner. I maintain a full-time job. I'm completing my community service. None of this are the actions of someone that's insane. This is someone who is in control and understands they have certain responsibilities, that bar is so high. You know that. To get to that level, you almost have to be a drooling, bumbling fool. And five minutes in her life, she may be a fool, but she's not a crazy fool. And that's the difference. And I'm not going to say that she's not,

doesn't have some mental illness. She may very well be mentally ill. What I find interesting is that Dr. Harry Crop is getting involved in this case. And he's a really well-known psychologist in this area. He does a lot of evaluations. And a lot of times he's working for defense teams. You know, I think we often hear his name come up in big, high-profile cases. You know, I mentioned he, he did stuff for Casey Anthony, met with her like four times and was on the, you know, a defense expert in that case. So what do you, What do you make of that? I mean, this is a pretty big gun they're bringing in for this case. Well, I think certainly he's qualified. He's comfortable in the big cases. This is certainly one that's going to have a lot of attention. But you said it. He's more often than not retained by

defense teams, which gives him that defense bias, which gives the prosecution, the opportunity to ask the million dollar question. Doctor, aren't you typically hired and retained by defense teams? Yes. Have you ever testified for the prosecution, which undoubtedly the answer is I'm sure he has? But then the next question is, what percentage of cases would you say, doctor, you're testifying on behalf of the defendant? That's a big question. And it speaks volumes to the court or to a jury. And again, we're not dismissing any mental health condition that Jennifer may have, which I'm sure the doctor will find. maybe she has depression, maybe she has bipolar issues. These are things that you see and they're fairly typical, ADHD.

That's not insane. And that's not someone who doesn't know right from wrong and doesn't know if I leave my baby in the hands of someone that is punching them in the chest and restraining them on a regular basis and depriving them of food, they could die or be seriously injured. It's just, it just makes me sick. It's just absolutely, as a mother, makes me absolutely sick. Just kills me. When I read these cases, it makes me just absolutely nauseous.

The state will, in turn, want its own evaluation. They will want their expert to evaluate Jennifer. Am I wrong? No, that's correct. And part of the problem was originally when this notice of intent of an insanity defense came in, and you shared the document with me. It was bare bones. It was like, hey, we're going to plead insanity here.

It didn't provide a condition. It didn't provide a doctor at the time, which the rules require. So the state's like, well, how are we supposed to respond to this? We're supposed to get our own expert. Right. So that is why now, as things have developed, a doctor's been identified, and the state will get their own expert. And Jennifer's putting her mental health at issue here.

Now, typically, we would love as prosecutors to have information on the mental health of a defendant, right? But if that mental health is not put at issue by the defense, we don't have necessarily the right to get those evaluations done. Now, in an effort to combat their expert, she will be evaluated by a prosecution expert who will testify in response to their insanity defense. Let's move on now to Jerome Coombs, who the state attorney, not shockingly to me, is pursuing the death penalty against him. I mean, this was a three-year-old little girl who is dead. We have juvenile witnesses, siblings of this poor child, who say, I overheard what happened. You have witnesses, you know, who when the cops show up to the scenes say, he did it. They point right at him.

You have him, according to the detectives, acting out on a doll what he did. Now we have a capital sexual assault charge being filed against him. We don't know who the victim was in this case because they haven't released that information. It could have been, sadly, another child. But this is a horrific case, Jarrett. So what do you make of the state pursuing? the death penalty here because I'm not shocked by it. I mean, this is a first degree murder case. It was charged at first to second degree murder in Florida, but now they're saying, no, this is first

degree murder. Well, as we said, I've had similar cases and as a girl dad, I'm with them 1,000 percent on pursuing death here. And this case meets death penalty aggravators on a couple of grounds. Number one, Jay, as he's referred to in the defendant, in the filing. this was a course of conduct, a torture pattern. This child was tortured and restrained over a period of time. So that may be an aggravator in support of death. Torture certainly is, but the actual facts and the abuse this child sustained and the deprivation of food, the requirement that the children slept in a closet,

the restraint of blue painter tape and handcuffs on a daily basis, that's the kind of thing that the prosecution will take the position was a course of conduct and torture. The age of the victim, a three-year-old child is another aggravator, a history of violence. There's a 2019 arrest where Jay grabbed his at the time, I believe, ex-wife while she was wearing a carrier with their child and knocked them to the ground. This is a course, and he was charged with assault at that point. this is a course of conduct of an individual who disregards the safety of children. That may be an additional aggravator. So there are multiple points where this case meets the pursuit of a death penalty case.

You know what, too, if ever a case was one for the death penalty, it's this one. And these are the kind of cases when you look at them, your reaction is his life should hang in the balance for what he did. It's just absolutely horrific. And we've covered that 2019 arrest here on crime fix too. You know, that was the mother of his child. That was his ex-wife who he mistreated. It was just absolutely awful. The capital sexual battery charge, though, I mean, the more we learn about the case, the worse it gets.

I mean, it was bad enough that there's this horrific allegation that he, you know, was basically beating these children, poor little Paisley, she's three. She's totally defenseless. None of these kids could defend themselves, but this little girl was being bound and taped up, bound with her mother's robe tie night after night and painter's tape just because, like, she's doing what some little kids do, and maybe she's acting out because she's being mistreated, smearing feces around. I mean, some kids do this. They just do this stuff. If you have little kids, you know that they do weird stuff sometimes. It's just, it's gross, but this is not how you deal with it. You talk to them. I mean, you talk to them. Like you little kids, they can understand.

You talk to them about stuff. So it's just horrifying to me, but the sexual stuff, I mean, it's like it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse the more we learn about it. And you know, when you review the examination of her little body and the injuries to those areas, to, and that's another condition that would result in the pursuit of death was arguably she was the witness and a victim of sexual battery here. She was a witness to those crimes, and arguably that's another aggravator. So again, these are all aggravators in support of death that would ultimately be weighed against any mitigation evidence in support of the defendant Jay in this case. And look, these, and again, mental health will undoubtedly rear its head in that case as well.

His defense team has very, very little room to work. He's admitted he's a terrible person. He admitted to this conduct, much of it. So his mental health is going to have to be evaluated. And if it doesn't come in in the case, the guilt phase portion, it's certainly going to come in. in the penalty phase portion if we get there where they say he suffers from this condition, this condition, which causes these issues. Again, not insanity, but the mental health of Jay and Jennifer in this case are going to rear their heads. Yeah, I mean, he's pleaded not guilty to these

charges, but, you know, not the sexual battery charge, but we'll have to wait on that one. But we're going to have to, you know, that charge was just filed. We're going to have to wait and see how his case unfolds, but I will not be shocked because they are going to bring in mitigation experts. That's just par for the course in a death penalty case. I will not be shocked if his mental health is put at issue in this case. In Florida now, though, with a death penalty verdict, you know, since the Parkland case, the law has changed. They only need eight jurors now. It doesn't have to be unanimous. So they can get, they just have to convince eight jurors that somebody needs to be put to death to get a death verdict. Well, and I'm going to tell you, I've had death cases that if that was the

law, there would be some defendants on death row right now. They came very close, 11 to 1, 10 to 2, because we have a 12 jury system here in Pennsylvania too. It's the same thing. Eight jurors are a lot easier to sell than a unanimous jury. So again, that's something that's something that cuts against the defense here profoundly. Yeah, it's just this case. It's just shocking to me that boyfriend moves in in January, February, little Paisley is dead. It's unbelievable to me. And it's a pattern we've seen play out so many times.

The initial reaction is mom denies being aware of any abuse. This is all a shock to her. And then it comes out. This has been going on. The text messages reveal knowledge on the part of mom. It's put, it's, it's mothers who put their own, or fathers who put their own needs ahead of the needs of their children and they pursue relationships with individuals that are violent and act out on the kids. And inevitably, this is the result. Yeah, it's just horrific. We're of course going to keep an eye on this case. We've been covering it since the beginning. Jared, tell me about your new book. Well, ironically, the book is called Mother's Murders and Motivation. It's sold out on Amazon right now, but they're getting more. It's a book about my mom who raised my brothers and I after our dad passed away from cancer when we were very young. And she went out into the corporate world and raised us and educated us and used to tell us, if you ever want to pay me back, when you find a mom that needs help, you help her.

And this book highlights the cases of my career where I fought for some amazing moms who waited for justice for the death of their children. And the Drexel case in South Carolina, I represented Don Drexel when Brittany Drexel, at the very end of her case, the last three years or so, when that investigation, her body was discovered and Don and I were down in South Carolina fighting to make sure her voice was heard. So that's what the book's about. It's about a little boy who really loved his mommy and still does. And then it gets really dark, really fast. But really, it's championing these moms who have been just amazing to me. And I take lessons from those cases and they go chronologically. And I build on them through my career.

And people really seem to be enjoying it. And it's out in time for Mother's Day. Don't be fooled by the title. It's really a book that celebrates amazing. amazing moms who stood their ground in the face of some really bad guys and gals. Well, I can't wait to read it. Thank you so much for coming on. Jared Farentino, thank you so much.

Always a pleasure. Thank you. I reached out to Jennifer Kendrick's attorney, and I invited him to come here on Crime Fix, and at this point, he's declining to do so. Maybe that will change. The court has ordered a competency evaluation for Jennifer Kendrick. both she and Jerome Coombs are being held in the Marion County Jail. We'll stay on top of this case for you.

And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. Remember, you can always watch us on YouTube, and you can also watch and listen to us on Spotify. So check us out there. I'll see you back here next time.