Roland gets life for murdering 4-year-old daughter

By Carrie A. Mizell

Matthew Roland showed no emotion on Friday as a circuit judge sentenced the 24-year-old Waccasassa man to life in prison without parole for the murder of his 4-year-old daughter, Kristina Hepp.
Roland changed his plea to no contest on charges of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse. Though State Attorney Bill Cervone had said that he would seek the death penalty for Roland, a plea deal was reached in an effort to avoid trial. The mandatory life sentence without parole or appeal, was part of the plea deal.

Matthew Roland showed no emotion while in court on Friday.

Assistant State Attorney Jeanne Singer called the death of Kristina Hepp, at the hands of her own father, “Not only aggravated battery, but malicious torture.”
The 4-year-old had only been in her father’s custody for three months when 911 was called on the morning of April 27, 2009. At that time, Roland told a Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher that Kristina was not breathing. Deputies and EMS workers were shaken by what they saw when they arrived at Roland’s mobile home. The child’s lifeless body was found unresponsive on the living room floor. Her forehead, left eye and cheek were badly bruised. Her left eye was sunken in. There were fresh and old bruises, along with bloody marks covering her body.
Blood was found in the bathroom of the home, and a patch of Kristina’s hair with scalp tissue attached was found in the tub drain.
At the scene, Medical Examiner Martha Burt, M.D. stated that Kristina’s injuries amounted to great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement.
When investigators questioned Roland, all he would say was that he and the child had “got into it” the night before and that he had “spanked” her.
Despite her extensive injuries, Dr. Burt said that Kristina’s injuries were survivable if she had received timely medical attention. Instead, it appears that Roland continued to inflict pain on the child throughout the night until she finally stopped breathing.
As Kristina’s grandfather, Andy Hepp, told the judge during Roland’s sentencing, “This could have been prevented. All he [Roland] would have had to do was call me; he had my number.”
Wearing a red jumpsuit, with shackles on his lean arms and ankles, Roland sat silently while Kristina’s family members, including Andy Hepp, told Circuit Judge Ysleta McDonald about their “happy go lucky” girl, Kristina.
“Our family will never know what Kristina could have been,” said Betty Lynn DeJarnette, Kristina’s grandmother. “A part of me wants to see what was done to her, done to him.”
A close friend, Jamie Gordon, who acted as a grandmother to Kristina, described for Judge McDonald what Kristina looked like in her casket. She said the little girl had to be buried in a turtleneck and long pants rather than a dress, and her face had to be made-up to hide the bruises her father inflicted upon her.
Despite Kristina’s mother, Elizabeth Brown, telling the court that she didn’t think the father of her little girl should live another day for the murder he committed, Matthew Roland will spend the rest of his life in a federal prison.
“I won’t be happy until the day I see him buried,” Brown said.