Janessa Martinez had been staying with her mother near Houston when authorities say the mother’s boyfriend repeatedly assaulted the 2-year-old.
CHICAGO — What began as a summer stay with her mother in Texas ended with 2-year-old Janessa Martinez’s father traveling from Chicago to a hospital hundreds of miles away, where his daughter died after authorities say she suffered repeated assaults inside a Spring-area home.
Janessa was born in Chicago and was staying in Texas with her mother, Jazmin Cisneros, along with her 7-year-old sibling, according to investigators and family interviews. Their father, Norman Martinez, remained in Chicago. By early August, authorities say, Janessa had suffered a series of severe injuries that included fractures to her skull and pelvis and damage to her liver. Cisneros’ boyfriend, Gerardo Gonzalez, 29, was accused of inflicting the injuries. Cisneros, 28, was separately accused of failing to obtain medical attention or report the alleged abuse after learning that her daughter had been hit. Janessa died Aug. 12 after several days in a Texas hospital.
Her father learned of a crisis that had already become a criminal investigation. In a fundraiser posted while Janessa was still hospitalized, Norman Martinez described his daughter as a strong, independent little girl who loved to sing and dance. The appeal initially sought help for medical and recovery expenses while the family hoped she would survive. After her death, the family’s attention shifted to bringing Janessa back to the city where she was born. Martinez told Telemundo Chicago he wanted his daughter returned for a final farewell and said he hoped the criminal justice system would establish accountability.
The journey back to Chicago was the endpoint of a much different trip Janessa had made earlier in the summer. Cisneros told investigators that Janessa and the older child were with her for the summer while their father lived in Chicago. The available court records and police accounts do not provide a full public history of the custody arrangement or precisely when the children arrived in Texas. They do establish that both children were in Cisneros’ care when investigators say signs of violence against Janessa appeared, and prosecutors later alleged there had been an earlier unreported abuse incident in July.
The clearest documented warning came Aug. 1. Cisneros told investigators that Janessa’s right ear appeared swollen and seemed to sit lower than the other. She confronted Gonzalez, according to an arrest affidavit, and he admitted hitting Janessa several times in the head. By the next morning, the child’s face was extremely swollen on one side and she had developed a black eye, investigators said. Despite those signs, Cisneros did not take her daughter to a medical professional and did not call law enforcement. The affidavit says she told investigators she refrained from doing so because she knew Gonzalez would go to jail.
Five days later, the allegations escalated. Investigators said Gonzalez ultimately admitted striking Janessa again on Aug. 6 and stepping on her. Authorities connected the alleged attacks to the injuries later found at the hospital, including the lacerated liver and broken pelvis. Gonzalez had initially claimed the toddler fell in a bathtub and lost consciousness, according to investigators. Medical findings led deputies to reject a simple fall as an adequate explanation for the scope of Janessa’s injuries. Authorities said Gonzalez later acknowledged hitting the child four times in the head on Aug. 1 as well as assaulting her again on Aug. 6.
The moment the case came to the attention of emergency responders was not a conventional 911 call from the home. Cisneros told investigators that she had been asleep when Gonzalez woke her and said Janessa was not breathing. The pair drove away with the unresponsive child and sought help at a gas station in Spring, where Precinct 4 deputies were nearby. Officers began lifesaving measures until paramedics arrived. Janessa was taken to one hospital and then transferred by air to another because of her life-threatening condition. Medical workers attempted to save her, but investigators were told that she was not expected to survive.
The arrests followed while Janessa remained hospitalized. Gonzalez was jailed first and charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. Cisneros was arrested several days later on the same class of charge, although prosecutors based her case on alleged failure to act rather than an accusation that she personally beat Janessa. Gonzalez was held on a $1 million bond. Cisneros’ bond was set at $500,000. During an early hearing, a magistrate judge described the allegations against Gonzalez as exceptionally serious. At a later hearing, a district judge refused to lower Cisneros’ bond.
That later hearing also exposed a dispute that could shape Cisneros’ defense. Attorney James Stafford said members of her family claimed Gonzalez had threatened her and invoked supposed cartel ties as a way to frighten her. He also said threats had been made against her life. Those statements came from the defense and have not been independently established as fact. Prosecutors, meanwhile, disclosed that Cisneros had allegedly acknowledged another unreported incident of abuse in July. Taken together, the competing claims set up a legal question about what she knew, what danger she herself may have faced and whether prosecutors can prove that her failure to protect Janessa amounted to the felony charged.
Janessa died on the night of Aug. 12. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office announced her death the next day, and homicide investigators began working with prosecutors to determine whether the existing charges should be increased. Some subsequent reporting said a capital murder charge was pursued against Gonzalez, while other detailed local reports still described the decision as under review. Because public accounts are not fully consistent on the final charging status, the confirmed point is that Janessa’s death opened the possibility of more serious prosecution beyond the original injury-to-a-child case.
For Norman Martinez, the legal questions unfolded alongside the practical task of bringing his daughter home. He told Telemundo Chicago that Janessa had made a deep impression on him in her short life and recalled others describing her as a natural leader, including people at her day care. Relatives also spoke about the shock of losing her. Family and friends later gathered at a Chicago-area funeral home after Janessa’s remains were returned from Texas. The family’s public comments focused on remembrance and on allowing the courts to determine responsibility for her death.
The case affected Janessa’s older sibling as well. Following the arrests, the 7-year-old was placed in child protective custody, according to local reporting. The child was later relocated to live with relatives in Chicago. Authorities have not publicly accused either defendant of inflicting on that child the injuries found on Janessa. The sibling’s presence in the household remains part of the child welfare investigation, while Janessa’s death is being handled as a criminal matter by Harris County investigators and prosecutors.
Janessa’s story now connects two communities: the Texas suburb where the alleged violence occurred and the Chicago family that received her home for burial. In Texas, Gonzalez and Cisneros face criminal proceedings in which the allegations must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In Chicago, relatives have already held the farewell that Janessa’s father traveled south hoping he would not have to arrange. The investigation continues to examine the weeks she spent in Texas, the warnings prosecutors say were missed and the injuries that ultimately ended her life.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.