Texas mom jailed for 60 years for poisoning daughter with Benadryl to fake seizures

A Texas mother was sentenced to 60 years in prison after allegedly poisoning her four-year-old daughter in a ploy to fake a seizure disorder.

Jesika Jones was sentenced to 60 years in prison late last week for injury to a child and endangering a child , according to Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, who shared the news of the sentencing on his X page.

The harrowing child abuse case began in June 2022 when Jones brought her daughter to the Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth and told staff that the girl had been suffering from chronic seizures.

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It wasn't the first time she had brought her daughter to that emergency room, either — she was admitted on three other occasions on similar claims, Law&Crime reported.

During the visit before that fateful June 2022 admission, the hospital reportedly tested the girl's urine and found high amounts of Benadryl in her system — an allergy medication reserved for children at least 6 years of age. But the child had already been discharged by the time the urinalysis came back.

During the June 2022 visit, which began on June 19 and lasted until June 23, Jones accompanied her daughter into the bathroom several times each day, each time carrying with her a small purse that she later admitted to the authorities had a store of Benadryl in it. While in the bathroom, she fed her daughter pills, as much as 25 milligrams, and caused her to have seizures.

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Doctors eventually determined that the girl's symptoms were indicative of Benadryl poisoning. Jones, while she admitted to having Benadryl with her, denied giving any to her daughter while they were at the facility despite her daughter testing positive for it every day.

So, doctors contacted the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and told them of their concerns that the mother was poisoning her daughter with pills, and an investigation was opened. The doctors noted that it had to have been high doses of Benadryl to cause the seizures.

During interrogations, Jones eventually admitted to giving her daughter as many as four or five 25 mg adult tablets on several occasions. She was charged with injury to a child with serious or bodily mental injury and abandoning or endangering a child with reckless criminal negligence, and she pleaded guilty to both after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors in January, it was reported.

The investigation uncovered two 24-pill Benadryl packets in the 32-year-old mother's purse, with only six pills remaining. There was also an empty 30-pill bottle of Trazodone , an anti-depressant, and a bottle of Hydroxyzine, an antihistamine, which was missing 64 pills. Jones reportedly admitted to giving her daughter one of each on at least two different occasions.

"I'm a horrible person," Jones told the police, per an affidavit. "I don't love myself. I don't like who I am. I'm tired of living life like this. I'm tired of hurting people. I don't know. I really don't." She also referred to herself as a "habitual liar" who said she "need[s] help."

As 485th District Court Judge Steve Jumes sentenced Jones to 60 years on Friday, he called her a "determined recidivist". The judge stated, according to KXAS , "Unfortunately, I believe you are a determined recidivist that as recently as a month ago was persisting in the behavior to which you pled guilty in January and are asking for mercy."

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He added: "Because you are a determined recidivist and because I believe that you have a knack for finding situations where you can have access to children, I’m not confident giving you a prison sentence simply to [go] beyond a traditional dating range will protect the public. It is the court sentence that you will receive 60 years in prison."