Doctors described profound brain swelling and other trauma after Jermany Coleman’s condition was initially characterized to her mother as an allergic reaction.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Medical evidence showing severe brain swelling and blunt-force injuries became a crucial part of the case that ended with Michigan babysitter Tiffany Briana Moore convicted of murdering 15-month-old Jermany Coleman. A Kalamazoo County jury found Moore, 34, guilty Sept. 2 of felony murder, second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse.
The verdict came after jurors considered a case in which the child’s outward symptoms and the explanation given to her mother pointed in sharply different directions. Jermany’s mother testified that Moore said the toddler was having an allergic reaction when she returned the child in an alarming condition. Physicians later documented severe traumatic injuries, and the death was ruled a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force injuries. That contrast — between an explanation suggesting illness and evidence showing significant trauma — became one of the clearest factual threads running through the prosecution.
Sarah Brown, a child abuse pediatrician at Bronson Children’s Hospital, described the extent of Jermany’s injuries during a court hearing in 2024. Brown testified that swelling around the toddler’s eyelids was so extensive that doctors had difficulty opening her eyes enough to examine them. Imaging also showed profound swelling of the brain. The condition was serious enough that the medical team was concerned that the child could progress to brain death. The testimony gave the court a clinical account of injuries far beyond the visible swelling first noticed by the child’s mother.
The significance of that testimony went beyond establishing that Jermany was critically ill. First-degree child abuse under Michigan law requires proof that serious physical or mental harm was knowingly or intentionally caused. Prosecutors therefore had to present evidence from which jurors could determine not just that Jermany suffered catastrophic injuries, but that those injuries resulted from criminal abuse. The felony-murder charge raised the stakes further because Michigan law classifies a killing committed during first-degree child abuse as first-degree murder. The medical findings were therefore relevant to both the underlying abuse charge and the homicide theory built upon it.
Before doctors examined Jermany, her mother, Dae’Janique McClenton-Howard, encountered the child after Moore had been caring for her. McClenton-Howard testified at a preliminary hearing that Moore and Jermany were away from the apartment when she first returned home. When they arrived later, Moore handed over the toddler wrapped in a blanket. McClenton-Howard said she became alarmed when she saw the child in better light. Jermany’s eyes appeared badly swollen and her body was limp. Moore said the condition was an allergic reaction, according to testimony reported from the hearing.
McClenton-Howard’s account supplied the immediate human observation that preceded the later medical findings. She had not yet seen scans, received an autopsy result or heard a specialist describe the injuries. What she saw was a toddler whose physical condition was serious enough to prompt immediate concern. The subsequent hospital evaluation transformed those observations into medical evidence. Doctors found brain swelling, and authorities ultimately said Jermany had sustained multiple injuries caused by blunt force. The medical determination and autopsy findings gave investigators a basis to treat the case as suspected abuse rather than an unexplained medical collapse.
Authorities said Jermany had been in Moore’s care during the hours before the emergency. The incident began Oct. 28, 2023, at a home in the 3300 block of Michigamme Woods in Kalamazoo. The child was rushed for medical treatment and remained gravely injured. Accounts published after the case began have differed in shorthand descriptions of the precise hospital timeline, but local reporting indicates the child remained hospitalized before her death. What is not in dispute in the later criminal case is that an autopsy classified the death as a homicide and identified multiple blunt-force injuries as the cause.
Investigators then faced the task of determining who was responsible and whether the evidence supported homicide and abuse charges. Moore was reported missing after the toddler was found critically injured, and officers located her the following day. Authorities continued working on the case for months before it proceeded through the criminal court system. Earlier hearings brought testimony from McClenton-Howard and Brown into the public record, previewing evidence about the child’s condition that would remain important as the case advanced toward trial.
The three guilty verdicts reflect separate legal conclusions. The first-degree child abuse conviction established the jury’s finding that Moore knowingly or intentionally caused serious harm to Jermany. The felony-murder verdict connected the killing to that underlying abuse under Michigan’s first-degree murder law. Jurors also convicted Moore of second-degree murder, which Michigan law permits to be punished by life imprisonment or a term of years. First-degree child abuse likewise carries a possible life sentence or term of years, while the felony-murder conviction is governed by the state’s first-degree murder penalty.
The felony-murder conviction exposes Moore, who was an adult at the time of the crime, to life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. Exactly how the trial court enters judgment and addresses the multiple convictions will be determined through the sentencing process. Moore is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 30. No final sentence had been announced as of Oct. 19, making the upcoming hearing the next confirmed stage in a case whose central factual dispute has already been resolved by the jury.
After the verdict, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Capt. Danielle Guilds credited investigators, prosecutors and jurors for bringing the case to a conclusion after nearly three years. She also focused on Jermany’s family, saying the guilty verdicts could not erase their loss. That statement came after a trial centered in significant part on what happened to the toddler during a short period of care and what her injuries revealed once medical professionals were able to examine her.
For the jury, the case no longer turned on whether the child’s alarming appearance could be explained as an unexpected reaction. By the time the trial ended, the record included medical testimony about grave brain swelling, an autopsy finding of homicide, evidence of blunt-force injuries and testimony about the period when Jermany had been in Moore’s care. Jurors returned guilty verdicts on all three charged offenses. Moore now awaits the court’s sentence, scheduled for Oct. 30.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.