Elisena Carmona is charged with murder and injury to a child by omission.
According to the Harris County Sheriff's Office, detectives were called to Houston Northwest Medical Center on Tuesday after Lillian Fortner was pronounced dead.
Investigators initially were told Fortner fell from a chair and hit her head on Sunday but didn't show any signs of injury until she became unresponsive on Tuesday. By the time her father and Carmona took her to the hospital, she had already died.
An autopsy performed the next day told a different story. Authorities say Fortner had several bruises that were in various stages of healing and that the little girl had actually died from a hole in her small intestine that was caused by blunt force trauma.
On Thursday, Carmona was reinterviewed by detectives and that's when she allegedly admitted she became frustrated with Fortner and punched her in the abdomen.
As a result, Carmona was charged, arrested and transported to the Harris County Jail, where she is being held on bonds totaling $120,000.
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