A North Texas woman has been sentenced to 60 years in prison by a Tarrant County court for her role in the death of a 2-year-old girl who was left in her care.
Shamonica Jackson, 39, was sentenced Friday after she pleaded guilty to injury to a child in the death of Aniyah Darnell, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Aniyah’s body was covered in bruises and burns, investigators said. The toddler was unresponsive and also dehydrated when police found her with those severe injuries at an Arlington apartment in November 2018. She died the same day at Medical City Arlington Hospital.
Jackson and her boyfriend had custody of the toddler from August 2018 until her death.
Jackson punished the child by spanking her with a belt, police said.
Her boyfriend, Derick Roberson, was sentenced last year to three years of probation for failing to intervene in the abuse. He pleaded guilty to injury to a child by omission. Roberson’s sentencing came after a judge declared a mistrial in his case.
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The couple had faced charges of capital murder before their guilty pleas.
Jackson told Arlington police she had grown frustrated with the child for going to the bathroom in her clothes. According to an affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram in 2018, Jackson hit the child with a belt and her hand to teach the girl “a lesson.”
Jackson told police Aniya had a bad injury, described as a burn, on her rear, but she had not taken the girl to the hospital. Instead Jackson tried “home remedies” to treat the injury and continued to discipline the girl by hitting her, according to the affidavit.
During the period in which they had custody of Aniyah, Roberson was aware that Jackson repeatedly struck the girl, and gave her a bath that caused severe burns to her buttocks and foot, prosecutors alleged.
A forensic pathologist determined the cause of her death was battered child with dehydration and the manner was homicide.
This article includes information from the Star-Telegram’s archives.
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