Maplewood man who hit, burned, murdered 17-month-old girl sentenced to 40 years in prison

A Maplewood man who assaulted and killed a 17-month-old girl in October was sentenced in Ramsey County court on Thursday, according to court records.

Records show Terrance Valdez Leslie, 26, was sentenced to 40 years (480 months) in the St. Cloud Correctional Facility, with credit for 191 days already served. Leslie was also ordered to pay nearly $7,500 in restitution.

Leslie was sentenced for one count of second-degree murder while committing a felony.

According to Maplewood police, first responders were called to the 1400 block of County Road B East around 7:30 p.m. on October 18, 2022, on a report of a toddler with “significant injuries.”

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Police and fire crews responded and gave aid to the child, who was then taken to a hospital where she died a short time later.

Charging documents state first responders found the toddler with fresh burns to her neck, arm and cheek. Medics also found dark bruises all over her back and abdomen. Leslie and the child’s 18-year-old mother said Leslie was watching the child while the mother was at work.

Leslie claimed he was running hot water in a bathtub for the toddler but left to tend to his dog. He then heard a splash, found the child in the tub and said her skin was peeling off as he dried her. However, officers said they saw the tub was dry and no towels were even damp. Additionally, the hot water didn’t seem hot enough to cause the toddler’s injuries.

At the hospital, a doctor told police that many of the bruises on the toddler’s body were old, a sign of ongoing abuse. Fresh bruises were found on her face, and doctors found blood behind her eardrum, indicating a brain injury.

Eventually, the mother told police Leslie is abusive and that he assaulted her in the past few weeks as she was holding the child, adding that some of his blows hit the toddler. However, the mother said the child was fine when she left for work on Tuesday.

When investigators searched Leslie’s phone, they found videos of him swearing at the child, yelling at her to stop crying, and noises that sounded like him slapping or hitting the child.

The complaint notes the child had swelling, bruises and other apparent injuries in the videos, and some appeared to show the child unresponsive and unable to open her eyes or hold her head up.

Additionally, the complaint states Leslie’s phone had an internet search about the degree of burns caused by boiling water.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the girl’s cause of death as multiple traumatic injuries due to assault and noted she had several external injuries as well as a brain bleed, lacerations to her thymus gland, liver and adrenal gland and broken forearm bones. The medical examiner also found injuries consistent with sexual assault.

In 2022, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said law enforcement hadn’t presented a case again the mother. As of 2023, the mother has not been charged.

Police previously told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS there were no prior calls about child abuse at the apartment.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS discovered Leslie previously served time in prison after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition, in connection to a murder in Minneapolis. He was released in 2021 and was under supervision by the Hennepin Department of Community Corrections at the time of the murder.