Woman charged with capital murder in death of 6-year-old had previous injury to child conviction

Nephiterea Sancho being held on $1 million bond

SAN ANTONIO – A woman arrested Wednesday in the death of her 6-year-old daughter has been charged with capital murder of a child under 10 and was on parole for a 2010 conviction of injury to a child.

According to SAPD, police were dispatched to the 13000 block of Watson Road at the Frontera Crossing apartment complex for a disturbance where a woman was acting erratic, just after 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Neighbors discovered 6-year-old Hosanna Sancho unresponsive, with what police say was an apparent wound to her upper body.

SAPD said that the victim was Nephiterea Sancho’s daughter and did not release information as to what caused her to allegedly attack the child.

Sancho was found running around naked at the scene and arrested.

According to online court records, Sancho had a previous 2010 conviction of injury to a child.

She was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to a state hospital in Vernon, Texas in 2011.

The court records at the time indicated she had severe mental illness and was likely to cause serious bodily injury to another if not provided with treatment and supervision.

At some point, she was released from the state hospital and was doing outpatient treatment and was on parole.

In 2021, she stopped complying with her treatment and was arrested for a parole violation.

Sancho was again transferred to a state hospital, but it’s unclear when she was released. Her case was last heard in March 2023.

Sancho is now being held in the Bexar County Jail on a $1 million bond.

KSAT 12 reached out to the Department of Family and Protective Services regarding the case and a spokeswoman emailed back the following:

“DFPS is working closely with law enforcement to investigate this case. The family has not had any involvement with DFPS in the last several years. While details of investigations are confidential according to law, a public report will be available once our investigation is complete.”


About the Authors

Erica Hernandez is an Emmy award-winning journalist with 15 years of experience in the broadcast news business. Erica has covered a wide array of stories all over Central and South Texas. She's currently the court reporter and cohost of the podcast Texas Crime Stories.

John Paul Barajas is a reporter at KSAT 12. Previously, he worked at KRGV 5 in the Rio Grande Valley. He has a degree from the University of Houston. In his free time, he likes to get a workout in, spend time on the water and check out good eats and drinks.

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