Using excessive amounts of Benadryl and other pills to pretend to have a seizure disorder, a 32-year-old mother from Texas who calls herself a “habitual liar” will probably spend the rest of her life in prison for poisoning her 4-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors said that on Friday, Judge Steve Jumes of the 485th District Court sentenced Jesika Jones to 60 years in a state prison.
In January, Jones came to an agreement with the prosecution, entering a guilty plea to one count of willful criminal negligence causing bodily or mental harm to a child and one count of abandoning or endangering a child.
Before imposing the multi-decade sentence, Judge Jumes spoke with Jones face-to-face, branding her a “determined recidivist” who had persisted in poisoning children by pretending to be a nurse as she awaited her sentencing hearing.
According to a report from Fort Worth, Texas NBC affiliate KXAS, the judge stated, “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. 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.”
Authorities have stated time and time again that they think Jones mistreated all five of her children in a similar way, despite the fact that the allegations against her are related to the poisoning of one of the children.
It was barely over two years ago that Jones was first detained. But according to the investigators, she kept poisoning kids while she was free on bond.
As recently as July, Jones was observed providing medication to a 12-year-old girl who was not her daughter. According to the girl’s testimony, Jones gave her medicine that made her feel lightheaded while posing as a nurse.
Det. Weber told the station, “She was meeting men and basically becoming their girlfriend to get access to their children.” In his court appearance, Jones’ divorced husband said he spoke for their children and that her infidelity had left “deep scars.”
When Jones took her daughter to Cook Children’s Medical Center’s emergency room in Fort Worth on June 19, 2022, she informed the medical personnel that the youngster had been experiencing recurring seizures. For the same reason, Jones had taken her daughter to the same ER several times before.
The young child had already been admitted to the facility three times. The youngster had a prior hospital stay where the medical personnel examined her urine and discovered that she had a high dose of anti-allergy medication in her system. However, the infant had already been released from the hospital when those results were obtained.
In June 2022, following the victim’s check-in at the facility, the medical staff collected a urine sample once more and directed an expedited return of the results. After that, the young patient stayed at the hospital until June 23. Jones is accused of accompanying her child into the restroom several times a day throughout that period, always taking her purse with her.
Authorities said that Jones’ daughter would experience full-body tremors, an elevated heart rate, and frequently be unable to stand alone about an hour after using the restroom. Physicians concluded that the signs pointed to a possible Benadryl overdose.
Following that, doctors alerted the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office to their worries regarding Jones’s potential for giving her daughter large amounts of Benadryl when going to the restroom, with the understanding that this would not likely result in seizures.
When detectives showed up, Jones denied giving her daughter the prescription once more. However, she did confess to carrying Benadryl in her purse, which she said was for personal allergies. However, Jones acknowledged giving her 4-year-old four or five 25 mg adult Benadryl tablets on several occasions when presented with the findings of the urinalysis.
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Two packets of 24 Benadryl pills were discovered by investigators when they checked Jones’ purse.
Six tablets remained in one, while the other was empty. Investigators discovered the missing sixty-four pills from a bottle of antihistamine Hydroxyzine and an empty thirty-pill bottle of antidepressant Trazodone in addition to the Benadryl. Jones said that she had given her daughter one of each tablet twice.
The toddler presented with symptoms of “severe Benadryl poisoning,” according to one of the child’s doctors, who warned investigators that she was at “substantial risk of seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, difficulty breathing and coma — all of which can lead to death.”
