Judge sentences Tarrant County mom who poisoned her child, calling her 'determined' to re-offend
FORT WORTH — Sixty years in prison. That's the sentence a Tarrant County judge handed Jesika Jones for poisoning her 4-year-old daughter to make it seem she was sick.
Loud gasps, screams and tears filled the courtroom Friday morning as spectators reacted to the sentence with surprise and relief.
"I'm very satisfied with that," said Derek Jones, her estranged husband. "She deserves it. She's a danger to society and an evil person."
The pair shared three children, all of whom he says she poisoned. He said she had him fooled too, convinced they were suffering from epilepsy.
"The youngest one kept getting worse and kept getting worse. And as a parent, I was like… the doctors need to figure something out … You know, I thought I was losing my daughter. That's what I thought," he said.
During a visit to Cook Children's Hospital two years ago, medical staff grew suspicious and called the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
"I was able to get a confession from her that she poisoned her child with Benadryl to cause her seizures to make her child sick," said Detective Michael Weber.
Weber said Jones poisoned all five of her children and others too. Even while she was awaiting trial, he said she didn't quit.
"She was meeting men and basically becoming their girlfriend to get access to their children," he said.
A 12-year-old girl testified that as recently as last month, Jones was claiming to be a nurse and would give her medicine that made her feel dizzy.
Jones' attorneys asked that she receive probation, arguing that she suffered from a mental health condition known as Munchausen by proxy, where caregivers fake an illness in others, often their children, in order to receive attention and sympathy.
"She's ready to do whatever it takes to get well," said her lawyer in closing arguments.
The judge found the evidence showed others and called her a risk to public safety.
"Unfortunately, I believe you are a determined recidivist," he said.
Following the sentencing, Derek Jones took the stand, delivering a final blow on behalf of their children.
"What you did was not just an act of cruelty. It was an assault on their innocence," he told his wife.
ORIGINAL STORY:
North Texas mother gets 60 years in prison for poisoning her children with medications
FORT WORTH — Jesika Lynn Jones will spend 60 years in prison for intentionally giving her children medication to the point of poisoning.
Court documents revealed the 32-year-old was giving one child a mixture of Benadryl, Trazodone and Hydroxyzine. Doctors said the victim had toxicity from the Benadryl, which put her at risk of seizures, cardiac arrhythmias, respiratory suppression, coma and even death.
Another one of her children, investigators said, had been taken to the doctor for years, where Jones had tried to convince doctors that the child had seizures. Detectives said she posted on social media that different offspring had cancer, then deleted it. Investigators said she also tried to declare that her son was autistic. Detectives said the boy was 2 years old, too young to have that diagnosis.
On Jan. 10, Jones signed a plea deal for charges of injury to a child with serious bodily injury/mental and abandoning/endangering a child with reckless criminal negligence.
Even out on bond, the authorities found out Jones violated her bond conditions by going back around children. It's believed she may suffer from Munchausen by proxy. Munchausen syndrome is a mental health disorder in which someone fakes illness.