A mother charged in the death of her 12-year-old daughter was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years in prison, according to the Atascosa County District Clerk’s Office.
Denise Balbaneda, 38, was indicted in August 2024 on a charge of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission. Her husband, Gerald Gonzales, 42, who was also indicted on the same charge, is set to be sentenced in November, the clerk’s office said.
Those charges are connected with the death of Balbaneda’s daughter, Miranda Sipps. She was found unconscious with life-threatening injuries on Aug. 8 of that year.
An autopsy found she “experienced trauma to her neck,” the Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said.
Four days later, Soward said Balbaneda called 911 from her home in Christine to report that Sipps was not breathing. Balbaneda then drove her daughter to a hospital in Jourdanton, but dispatchers told her to stop and meet EMS at State Highway 16 and Farm-to-Market 140.
Sipps was taken to Methodist Hospital Atascosa, where medical staff were unable to improve her condition. She was pronounced dead that evening.
Sipps’ mother and stepfather were arrested the next day and booked into the Atascosa County Jail. Their indictments said they knowingly caused serious injuries to Sipps and failed to seek medical attention.
Soward said the parents “failed to act.” The sheriff’s office said Sipps was kept on a homemade bedding area in an environment that was not kept clean. The parents tried to give her smoothies, vitamins and supplements, and may have obtained oxygen for her at one point, Soward said.
>>READ MORE: Records show child injury, welfare calls made to Atascosa County home where 12-year-old girl was fatally injured
“Someone who is unconscious is not able to swallow,” he said. “She’d been in that situation, laying on the floor for four days.”
Sipps, a Jourdanton Independent School District student, would have turned 13 later that month.
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