Centennial – Susie Ida Quartey was barely able to sign her name on court documents because her hands were shaking uncontrollably. The 34-year-old cried throughout most of a 30-minute hearing Tuesday.
Quartey, a native of Ghana, is a suspect in the death of her 3-year-old daughter.
On Tuesday, a district court judge denied a motion to reduce Quartey’s $500,000 bail and she remains in Arapahoe County Jail, where she is on a suicide watch.
Quartey’s defense attorney, Thomas Miller, argued for a lower bail, telling District Court Judge Anne Ollada that his client has been working three jobs and that she is ingrained in the local Ghana community.
“She needs to get back to work,” Miller said.
Police said the girl, Jolyn Torpoh, was battered repeatedly with pieces of a metal towel rack and a coat hanger before she died.
Detectives who viewed autopsy photographs estimated that Jolyn suffered at least 50 blows, leaving puncture wounds and bruises along her legs, face and backside, according to an arrest affidavit obtained Monday.
Miller said Quartey is innocent of police accusations that she beat her child.
“She needs to be given the opportunity to grieve” somewhere other than on “a cold jailhouse floor,” Miller said.
But senior deputy district attorney Christine Martin argued that the seriousness of the allegations justify the $500,000 bail and Quartey remaining in custody.
“We have a child who was found dead covered in bruises and in puncture marks,” Martin said.
Quartey told police she was carrying Jolyn on her back, wrapped in traditional African cloths, when she and her daughter fell together onto rocks in the family’s backyard.
She was arrested Saturday after calling 911 from her home to report that Jolyn had stopped breathing.
The coroner has not yet determined a cause of death and is waiting for lab and toxicology results.
Quartey is scheduled back in court Thursday to face formal filing of charges.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
