Former Arlington football star, wife argued often, Tulsa police learned

A former Arlington High School football star who faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of his 6-week-old daughter had a rocky relationship with his wife, Tulsa police said Thursday.

Tavarreon Dickerson, 22, remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday night, accused of killing Raylie Mae Dickerson in January at the family’s residence in Tulsa. He is awaiting extradition proceedings.

Tulsa investigators last week got the baby’s autopsy report, which said the cause of death was blunt-force trauma and the manner of death was homicide, Tulsa police Cpl. Greg Smith of the Child Crisis Unit said.

An arrest warrant was issued for Dickerson, and Arlington police were alerted in case he returned to his hometown. He was arrested Monday.

Dickerson and his wife, Jenna, who married in July 2015, have two other children, about 2 and 4, police said.

After Raylie died, Jenna Dickerson moved from Tulsa to the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the surviving children.

Reached by phone Thursday night, Jenna Dickerson said she moved out to give her husband time to focus on his May 7 graduation from the university. She said she has been staying with relatives.

The couple’s 4-year-old told investigators both parents argued in the house, Smith said. Jenna Dickerson had once left the house for a day with the children to let her husband calm down after a heated argument, he said.

“I left because I needed to cool off,” she said Thursday, acknowledging that she and her husband had frequent arguments.

Multiple injuries

Dickerson, a record-setting running back at Arlington High, left the University of Tulsa football program at the end of 2015 to spend more time with his family and focus on graduating, Jenna Dickerson said.

On Jan. 10, Raylie was transported to a hospital after her parents called 911. Medics found her unresponsive in a bedroom in the 3300 block of East Fifth Place, close to the University of Tulsa. Hospital staff noted that the baby had a brain bleed, Smith said.

She died three days later, at which point police considered Dickerson a suspect, Smith said.

Dickerson told detectives that the baby was fussy and could not sleep, so at about 4 a.m. he carried her to the living room couch and turned on the TV, Smith said. An hour later, when he picked her up to take her back to the bedroom, he noticed that the baby was limp, he told police.

He woke up his wife, and they called 911. They said the child must have suffocated in her sleep.

“Suffocation deaths don’t usually cause brain bleed — that is usually caused by a shake or strike to the head,” Smith said. “It takes a lot of force for that, not just rolling over on top of somebody.”

The Oklahoma medical examiner found internal bruising that was not consistent with suffocation and was not accidental, Smith said.

The medical examiner also found medical conditions that could have been caused by childbirth, which slowed the post-mortem, Smith said. Finally, last week, Smith got the results of Raylie’s autopsy: Cause of death, multiple blunt-force trauma. Manner of death, homicide.

The Tulsa County district attorney’s office was notified, and a child-abuse/murder arrest warrant was signed. Unable to track down Dickerson, the Tulsa police fugitive task force contacted Arlington’s fugitive task force in case he had fled to his hometown, Smith said.

Jenna Dickerson said police had called to notify the couple of the arrest warrant. She said they expected it, declining further comment.

Tavarreon Dickerson can waive extradition to Tulsa, and the Sheriff’s Department will travel to Fort Worth to pick him up. Or he can fight to stay in Texas, Smith said.

In Oklahoma, a child-abuse murder charge is punishable by life in prison or a death sentence.

On Monday, a post appeared on Dickerson’s Facebook page: “I miss you Raylie Mae Dickerson. Everyday it seems like the pain gets worse and worse.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2016 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Former Arlington football star, wife argued often, Tulsa police learned."