Mom is jailed for killing her daughter, 4, by feeding her diet of baby bottles filled with Mountain Dew, which gave youngster deadly diabetes and dissolved her teeth

An Ohio mother was jailed after admitting to killing her four-year-old daughter by feeding her a diet of baby bottles filled with Mountain Dew.

Tamara Banks, 41, was sentenced this week to 13 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the January 2022 death of her daughter Karmity Hoeb.

Karmity died in hospital after complications related to diabetes, in what a prosecutor described as “one of the most tragic cases I have ever encountered.” Her teeth had rotted away by the time she died.

The little girl’s father, Christopher Hoeb, 53, also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and will be sentenced on June 11.

Karmity Hoeb, 4, died in January 2022 from complications due to untreated diabetes, and suffered further medical problems related to her teeth being dissolved by an all-sugar diet.

The little girl can be seen being cuddled by her father — who was also convicted in her death — in front of a coffee table full of Mountain Dew and junk food.

Another poignant photo shows Karmity posing for a photo with her mother while showing off teeth rotted away by her Mountain Dew diet

Banks pleaded guilty in March after prosecutors charged both her and Karmity’s father with murder and child endangerment.

Their guilty pleas to involuntary manslaughter meant the other charges were dropped.

Karmity died at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center after being driven there when she began showing symptoms related to her untreated diabetes.

The girl was horribly neglected throughout her young life and denied medical care and proper nutrition, despite showing signs of serious medical complications, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

Days before her death, prosecutors said Karmity was suffering from a “serious medical problem” but that her parents failed to call for help or take her to the emergency room.

Her symptoms worsened until she turned blue and stopped breathing, and only then did Banks call 911. Medics were briefly able to revive her, but scans showed she was brain dead.

Karmity’s cause of death was listed as diabetic ketoacidosis that spread to her brain, with prosecutors condemning Banks and Hoeb as saying her death could have been prevented if they had helped her untreated diabetes.

Karmity is seen in a tribute photo in the kitchen of her childhood home, close to a huge case of Mountain Dew

“This child did not have to die,” Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor Clay Tharp concluded.

The neglect Karmity suffered was even more distressing because Banks also had a number of health problems, and evidence showed that she strained to care for her own medical needs while ignoring those of her daughter.

This included regularly refilling her own prescriptions and scheduling doctors to visit her apartment for various illnesses.

In addition to the four-year-old’s diabetes, Karmity also suffered from a condition that caused her teeth to loosen because her mother fed her only Mountain Dew from a baby bottle.

A regular 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew contains almost 50 grams of sugar.

Prosecutors added that Karmity was continuously fed with baby bottles long after she should have been weaned from them, and that there was no evidence that Banks ever took her to a dentist.

The lack of medical care was all the more shocking because Banks had several older children who were neglected and malnourished, including a son with undiagnosed diabetes that left him in a coma.

That son recovered, but prosecutors said Banks still wouldn’t help him and would never take him to follow-up visits at the hospital after he was brought out of the coma.

During her sentencing hearing this week, Judge Victor Haddad pointed to her son’s prior condition as a reason she should have known to help Karmity.

Karmity’s father, Christopher Hoeb, 53, also pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and will be sentenced on June 11.

Prosecutors condemned Banks for failing to provide Karmity with any form of medical care while she routinely provided her own care

“It’s hard to be a good parent, but you expect at least mediocre parents, everyone should expect that,” he told her. ‘Not knowing what to do is no excuse.’

Shockingly, Karmity’s online obituary includes a tribute written by Banks and Hoeb, in which they spoke of their love for their daughter and wrote that she had a happy childhood despite the signs of abuse and neglect.

“Our precious daughter Karmity Faythe Hoeb, who we nicknamed Boogie, which suited her personality because she loved to be silly,” the grammatically incorrect obituary read.

‘She also loved to look at herself in the mirror because she knew how beautiful and special she was.

‘Smart and lively. The camera loved her almost as much as she loved smiling big and saying cheese. Every day she woke up full of joy and love.

“Every day she played with her Mickey buddies and raced her cars. She touched everyone who ever saw her or spent any time with her. She will always be remembered as our daughter, now our guardian angel.”