A San Antonio woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in the death of a 3-year-old girl who was left in her care in 2022. 

Evonne Monica Perez, 51, pleaded no contest to injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the death of Ronni Esther Lynn Salazar on Oct. 27, 2022. 

The child’s mother, Kassandra Lopez, was going through hard times and asked Perez to look after her two children for six months until she could get back on her feet, KENS 5 reported in November 2022. Lopez said Perez had taken care of her children in the past. 

In a wheelchair from injuries her lawyer has said she received in attacks by inmates while in the Bexar County jail, Perez cried throughout her plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday in the 187th District Court.

She acknowledged that the agreement between the two women was not court-ordered, therefore Texas Child Protective Services was not involved. 

Authorities said Perez took Ronni to University Hospital on Sept. 27, 2022, and left her there in an unresponsive state. 

Ronni died a month later.  Doctors told Lopez that Ronni had a massive brain bleed from blunt force trauma injuries, bruising throughout her body and internal injuries believed to be consistent with sexual abuse, according to reports. 

Lopez’s other child, a boy, was not injured.

Perez agreed to plead no contest in exchange for a maximum 18-year prison sentence under deal reached between defense attorney Matthew T. Allen and Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Ali Jackson. 

State District Judge Stephanie Boyd found her guilty and ordered Perez, who had been a licensed vocational nurse, to have “no contact with minors, and no employment with minors or vulnerable persons” once she is released from prison.

In a tearful victim impact statement, Lopez wept as she told the court she kept calling and asking Perez if her children were OK.

“You gave me the runaround,” Lopez said through tears. “I’ll never be OK with what you did.”