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A 31-year-old Fort Worth mother was sentenced to life in prison this week when a jury found she failed to protect her 4-year-old daughter, who died after she was beaten by the woman’s fiance and starved.
Keiala Laquett Nix was found guilty of causing serious injury by failing to seek medical care and failing to provide adequate nutrition for her child, Arabella Nix, according to court documents.
Police officers and paramedics responded to a call about an unresponsive child at a Fort Worth home on May 16, 2024. Officers found Arabella Nix was severely emaciated, with her body completely covered in bruises and scars, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. The girl died in the hospital less than an hour later.
Keiala Nix’s fiance, Martin Gonzalez, was sentenced to 50 years in prison in November after he was found guilty of aggravated assault of a family member causing serious bodily injury and injury to a child by omission.
During his trial, the jury learned that Gonzalez hit the child repeatedly with a belt, the Star-Telegram previously reported. In her indictment, the DA’s Office wrote that Keiala Nix failed to protect her daughter from Gonzalez.
4-year-old deprived of food, punished
Keiala Nix made YouTube videos and TikToks with Gonzalez showcasing their “loving” family, but punished Arabella for taking food without asking and called her daughter a thief, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
According to court documents, the defendant also benefitted from a GoFundMe posted on the same day her daughter was pronounced dead. Keiala Nix was also known to be abusive toward her fiance, prosecutors said. In August 2016, Irving police were called because she reportedly assaulted Gonzalez.
Defense files notice of appeal
During Keiala Nix’s trial, which began in July and ended on Monday, Aug. 3, defense attorneys called her mother, Katherine Lee, to testify. During cross-examination, the state asked Lee about numerous jail phone calls she made to co-defendant Gonzalez. Through those calls, prosecutors learned that Lee believed Gonzalez was innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted, according to a motion filed by Nix’s defense attorneys.
The defense wrote that Lee’s statements in the recorded phone calls directly contradicted the defensive theory and strategy that Gonzalez was the person who caused all the injuries and the death of the child.
The attorneys wrote that they did not have access to the jail calls before Nix’s trial and if they did, they would not have called Lee to testify. The judge denied the defense’s request to instruct the jury to disregard Lee’s testimony, according to the motion.
The judge also denied the defense’s request for a mistrial but allowed a break in the trial to give the attorneys time to review the more than 150 calls, many in Spanish, that had to be translated, according to court documents.
After the jury’s verdicts on guilt and punishment, defense attorneys filed a notice that they are appealing the case to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Star-Telegram.
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Shambhavi covers crime, law enforcement and other breaking news in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. She graduated from the University of North Texas and previously covered a variety of general assignment topics in West Texas. She grew up in Nepal.