An Ohio mother has been sentenced to prison after her 4-year-old diabetic daughter died from being mainly fed a diet of baby bottles filled with Mountain Dew.
Tamara Banks, 41, was sentenced on Friday to at least nine years in prison for the young girl’s death and up to 13 and a half years. Banks, of Clermont County, had pleaded guilty in March to involuntary manslaughter for the death of her daughter – Karmity Hoeb.
Karmity’s father, 53-year-old Christopher Hoeb, also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He is set to be sentenced in June.
Karmity was found unresponsive on Jan. 21, 2022. The couple called 911 and the girl was rushed to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The 4-year-old girl was declared to be brain dead and died four days later after being taken off life support.
Karmity died in 2022 of a diabetes-related brain injury.
The Clermont County coroner determined the girl’s cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis. Prosecutors said the girl’s condition “was left undiagnosed and untreated over a long period of time.”
Dr. Chris Peltier – President of the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics – told WCPO-TV, “Diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, is an extreme complication of untreated diabetes.”
Prosecutors claimed Banks and Hoeb mostly fed their daughter a baby bottle that was filled with baby formula and Mountain Dew soda. Prosecutors noted that the 4-year-old girl should have been weaned off bottles long before her death.
A 20-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew reportedly contains 77 grams of sugar.
WXIX-TV previously reported the girl’s teeth had rotted out and she had almost none left.
Karmity suffered from a “serious medical issue” days before her death, but her parents failed to call for help or take her to the hospital, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Karmity suffered neglect, child abuse, denied proper nutrition, lacked medical care, and there was no evidence that she had been taken to a dentist in her short life.
Clermont County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Clay Tharp told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “This is one of the most tragic cases I have ever encountered.”
Tharp also pointed out, “This child did not have to die.”
Our guardian angel now
Karmity – nicknamed “Boogie” – “loved to be silly” and “loved looking at herself in the mirror because she knew how beautiful and special she was.”
“Each day she woke up full of joy and love,” the girl’s obituary read. “Every day she was playing with her Mickey buddies and racing her cars. She touched everyone that ever laid eyes on her or spent any time with her. She will always be remembered as our daughter, our guardian angel now.”
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