John Jefferson
Inset: Jesika Jones (Tarrant County Detention Center). Background: Cook Children’s Medical Center, where Jones was found to be poisoning her daughter with Benadryl (KTVT).
A 32-year-old mother and self-proclaimed “habitual liar” in Texas will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars for intentionally poisoning her 4-year-old daughter, plying the preschooler with excessive amounts of Benadryl and other drugs to fake a seizure disorder. 485th District Court Judge Steve Jumes on Friday ordered Jesika Jones to serve a sentence of 60 years in a state correctional facility, prosecutors announced.
Jones in January reached a deal with prosecutors and agreed to plead guilty to one count of injury to a child with serious bodily or mental injury and abandoning or endangering a child with reckless criminal negligence.
Prior to handing down the multi-decade sentence, Jumes addressed Jones directly, calling her a “determined recidivist” who had continued to falsely hold herself out as a nurse to poison children, even as she was awaiting her sentencing hearing.
“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,” the judge said, according to a report from Fort Worth, Texas NBC affiliate KXAS. “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.”
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The charges against Jones stem from the poisoning of one of her five children, but authorities have repeatedly said they believe Jones victimized all of her kids in similar fashion.
Jones was initially arrested just over two years ago. However, authorities say that while out on bond, she repeatedly continued to poison children.
Detective Michael Weber of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office told Fort Worth CBS affiliate KTVT that Jones as recently as July was caught giving medication to a 12-year-old girl who was not her daughter. The girl reportedly testified that Jones claimed to be a nurse and gave her medication that caused her to feel dizzy.
“She was meeting men and basically becoming their girlfriend to get access to their children,” Det. Weber told the station.
Jones’ estranged husband also addressed the court, saying he represented the voice of their children and saying that the scars of her betrayal “run deep.”
“What you did was not just an act of cruelty; it was a devastating assault on their innocence. I urge you to see beyond the surface and acknowledge the profound and lasting impact of your actions on innocent lives,” Derek Jones said, per KXAS. “Instead of exploring new places, making friends, and engaging in adventures, their lives were dominated by the restraints of fake sickness. Every playdate was replaced with a hospital visit. Every carefree moment overshadowed by caution and fear.”
As previously reported, Jones on June 19, 2022, brought her daughter to the emergency room at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth where she told the medical staff that the child had been suffering from chronic seizures. Jones had brought her daughter to the same ER on multiple previous occasions for the same reason.
The little girl was admitted to the facility on three previous occasions. During the child’s previous hospital visit, the medical staff analyzed her urine and found high amounts of anti-allergy medication in her system. Those results, however, came back after the child had already been discharged from the hospital.
After checking the victim into the facility in June 2022, the medical staff again took a urine sample and ordered an expedited return on the results. The child then remained at the hospital until June 23. During that time, Jones allegedly accompanied her child into the bathroom multiple times per day, carrying her purse in with her each time.
About an hour after each bathroom visit, Jones’ daughter would suffer full-body tremors, an elevated heart rate, and was often unable to stand on her own, authorities said. Doctors said the symptoms were indicative of Benadryl poisoning.
When questioned, Jones initially denied giving her child any medication since she’d been in the hospital. However, the girl’s urine samples allegedly came back positive for Benadryl every day she was at the facility.
Doctors then contacted the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office to relay their concerns about Jones possibly dosing her daughter with Benadryl during trips to the bathroom, noting that such doses would have to be high to produce the subsequent seizures.
Detectives responded and interviewed Jones who again denied giving her daughter the medication, though she did admit to having Benadryl in her purse, which she claimed was for her own allergies. But when confronted with the results from the urinalysis, Jones admitted to giving her 4-year-old about four or five 25 mg adult Benadryl tablets on multiple occasions.
Children are not supposed to take Benadryl until they are at least 6 years old.
Investigators searched Jones’ purse and found two 24-pill Benadryl packets. One was empty and the other only had six pills remaining. In addition to the Benadryl, investigators also found an empty 30-pill bottle of the antidepressant Trazodone along with a bottle of the antihistamine Hydroxyzine, which was missing 64 pills. Jones admitted to giving her daughter one of each pill on two different occasions.
Jones eventually broke down and admitted she “need[s] help,” police wrote in an affidavit.
“I think I’m a horrible person,” she told police, per the 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.”
During the interview, Jones also referred to herself as a “habitual liar.”
Approximately one week later, doctors told police that Jones’ daughter’s urinalysis came back positive for Benadryl, Trazodone, and Hydroxyzine.
One of the child’s doctors told investigators that the girl showed signs of “severe Benadryl poisoning” which placed her at “substantial risk of seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, difficulty breathing and coma — all of which can lead to death.”
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