Tarrant County mom gets 60 years in prison for poisoning her 4-year-old with Benadryl
FORT WORTH, Texas - A Tarrant County mother was sentenced to 60 years in prison for poisoning her child.
Jesika Jones gave her daughter adult Benadryl in order to make the girl shake. She'd then take the girl to the hospital claiming she was suffering seizures.
The lead detective believes she was abusing several of her children, but this 60-year sentence comes after she pleaded guilty to crimes against one of them.
The 32-year-old received her 60-year sentence on Friday.
Jesika Jones (Tarrant County Sheriffs Office)
In 2022, Jones was arrested and charged with poisoning her 4-year-old daughter with adult-strength Benadryl to fake a seizure disorder. This came after she took her daughter to Cook Children’s Medical Center saying her toddler was having seizures.
Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Det. Michael Weber says Jones admitted to giving at least 4-6 adult-strength Benadryl in order to make the child shake and present signs of a seizure disorder.
"In this case, I had a confession," he said. "We had evidence in the child’s blood, and we had evidence in mom’s purse."
Weber says there’s evidence and testimony that Jones previously presented at least one of her other children as having epilepsy when that child did not.
Weber calls this medical child abuse and says his office had charged more than a dozen cases.
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He was wanted after violating his bond on child abuse charges. When officers tried to arrest him, he did not want to go down without a fight.
"They either exaggerate, falsify or induce medical symptoms in their child in order to fulfill an intrinsic need in themselves," he said.
When Jones was out on bond last October, she violated bond by having contact with a child and was arrested this April.
Then in July, Jones violated her bond again by having contact with the child of a man she was trying to date.
That child testified that Jones became interested in medications she was prescribed after a surgery and befriended her.
"No bond revocation hearing was sought. That is a failure in the criminal justice system, specifically a failure by the Tarrant County DA’s Office," Weber said. "It is a frustration of mine that that office continues to view these offenders as not a threat to the public at large or additional children."
A spokesperson for the Tarrant County DA’s Office did not respond to FOX 4’s multiple requests for comment.
The DA posted a quote from the child’s father to X that said, "The scars of your betrayal run deep."