Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV5 released audio of a conversation between Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill and his fiancée, Crystal Espinal, on Thursday. The conversation features Espinal confronting Hill about the details of what happened that led to their son getting a broken arm, Espinal bringing up previous times where she defended him against “that detective and the CPS people,” and, perhaps most damaging, Hill threatening Espinal outright.
As Espinal recounts what seems to be the incident that led to the son’s broken arm, she also paints a picture of a fractured relationship between Hill and the couple’s son. Espinal says that their son was terrified of going to Hill when he was in trouble for an unspecified reason. Up until that point, Hill had been agreeing with how the story was playing out. His disagreement starts when Espinal asks how their son’s arm got hurt. Hill said he didn’t do anything to the kid, to which his fiancée pushes back with: “Then why does he say ‘Daddy did it’?”
Espinal also appears to speak rather confidently about Hill’s disciplinary practices against his son which include punching the child in the chest, and hitting him with the belt. Hill responds with “well what about you,” as if to imply that she also hits their son. Espinal doesn’t deny that their son “gets whooped,” but pushes back against the notion that she uses a belt.
The audio’s release comes just one day after Johnson County DA Stephen Howe announced he would not file criminal charges against Hill for child abuse/neglect and battery, which led to his son’s broken arm. Howe emphasized that he believed a crime took place, but did not have enough evidence to determine who committed that crime. Hill denied the allegations that he had anything to do with his son’s injury.
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