Texas mother-of-five is jailed for 50 years for beating death of boyfriend's four-year-old daughter who she brought to emergency room 'cold' with a black eye

A Texas mother-of-five has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for beating her boyfriend's four-year-old daughter to death. 

Shawna Hooey, 33, of Tomball, Texas, was looking after her own five kids and the young daughter of her boyfriend on September 7, 2019. 

She rushed the little girl, Jakyzia Alexander, to the 24-hour emergency center where she told medical workers at least four different stories about what happened to the child.  

Jakyzia's body was 'already cold' when she showed up to the clinic and had a visible black eye and other injuries. 

The four-year-old died that day from blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy showed, after the fatal blow caused seizures, vomiting and dazed reactions. 

Some of the stories that Hooey told medical workers included that she ran into a doorknob and another tale was that she threw herself against a toilet paper holder in the bathroom.

Hooey claimed that the little girl had to be woken up and was taking deep breaths and 'not acting normally,' which prompted the mother-of-five to drive her around in a 'hot car' to 'try and get her to breathe normally,' according to Fox News. 

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said that Jakyzia had signs of repeated abuse - including fresh and healed injuries. 

Jakyzia's father worked night shifts and had sole custody of the child. In the two months leading up to her death, he had been living with other family members closer to work and hadn't seen his daughter except for video calls. 

Hooey was taking care of Jakyzia during this time.

After an emotional nine-day trial, a Harris County jury convicted of Hooey of murder and sentenced her to 50 years in prison. 

As the verdict was announced, Hooey and members of her family dramatically burst into tears.

'You are not the victim, Shawna,' Vonda Harris, the little girl's grandmother said as she took the stand to make an impact statement. 

'For her to cry now, I don't understand that because she didn't cry through any of her statements or any of the police investigating,' Harris told ABC. 

'My niece was barely 30 pounds. So how she could cause deep bruising in her head and make her spine come unattached to her body, I'll never know,' April Alexander, the victim's aunt, said. 

'She was a big part of our life. We don't have a lot of girls in our family, so it's a huge missing part of our life,' Alexander said.