A 41-year-old Ohio mother who primarily fed her daughter Mountain Dew from a bottle until her teeth rotted was sentenced Friday to nine to 13 1/2 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Tamara Banks faced charges of murder, manslaughter and child endangerment, but the murder and child endangerment charges were dropped when she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, according to FOX 19.
The girl's father, Christopher Hoeb, 53, faced the same charges and also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He will be sentenced next month.
“This is one of the most tragic cases I've ever encountered,” Clermont County Deputy Prosecutor Clay Tharp told The Cincinnati Enquirer.
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Tamara Banks, 42, was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter. (Clermont County Jail)
The 4-year-old boy, whose diabetes went undiagnosed for years, was found unresponsive in January 2022, Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said in a news release at the time.
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The girl was taken to a hospital where she was declared brain dead and was eventually taken off life support, FOX 19 reported.
The cause of her death was determined to be diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication of diabetes in which acid levels in a person's blood become life-threatening, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The girl's diet consisted primarily of Mountain Dew, prosecutors said. (Rey López for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“Due to neglect and abuse by his parents, KH suffered for most of his short life,” Tekulve said, adding that his diabetes “went undiagnosed and untreated for a long period of time.”
Banks' oldest son Jerry told FOX 19 in March that he never met his little sister because she was kept away from him, but he remembers that his younger brother suffered diabetic ketoacidosis years earlier and had to force his mother, who, As he said, he had fainted. to take him to the hospital.
Banks remained at the Clermont County Jail as of Saturday night, according to the jail's website. Clermont County is east of Cincinnati. (Clermont County Sheriff's Office)
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“One day, he just became lethargic and wouldn't move and the only thing he responded to was sugar and for 36 hours, she [Tamara Banks] “I passed out in the back room,” Jerry Banks told the station. “I had to wake her up and force her to take him to the hospital and that's when they discovered that she had CAD from her; the same thing she happened to [K.H.]. “The doctors detected it in time to save him.”
Banks remained at the Clermont County Jail as of Saturday night, according to the jail's website. Clermont County is east of Cincinnati.
