Prosecutor Marissa Giovenco hugs a relative of Mercedes Losoya, the 5-year-old tortured to death in 2022, after watching Mercedes’ mother, Katrina Mendoza, sentenced to 45 years in prison Monday for her part in the slaying. Mendoza's boyfriend, Jose Angel Ruiz, was sentenced in March to life in prison.

Katrina Rose Mendoza was sentenced to 45 years in prison for helping torture her 5-year-old daughter, Mercedes Losoya, to death in 2022.

It was the maximum penalty allowable under a plea deal reached last summer. Mendoza, 24, showed no emotion when state District Judge Stephanie Boyd issued it Monday in 187th District Court.

But she stifled her sobs as Mercedes’ great-great-grandmother, Lupe Marin Torres, delivered a victim impact statement. Torres said Mendoza’s oldest daughter Jordan, who is currently under her care, has been unable to sleep because she sees her sister “being hurt, being hit.”

Jordan, she said, makes comments like, “Grandma, I love my mommy, but I’m afraid. I’m afraid that one day she will come and something will happen to me like what happened to Mercedes.”

Mendoza and her then-boyfriend, Jose Angel Ruiz, each were charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury after they brought an unresponsive Mercedes to a South Side hospital on Feb. 7, 2022.

Doctors could not revive the girl, who had bruises, scratches and swelling all over her body and sections of hair missing, testimony at Ruiz’s March trial established. A jury found Ruiz, 27, guilty and sentenced him to life in prison , partly spurred by graphic photos and video depicting the ongoing brutality the girl endured.

In exchange for a maximum sentence of 45 years and her testimony against Ruiz, the mother agreed to plead guilty to one count of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury in a deal reached between prosecutors and her defense attorney, Todd McCray.

Mendoza told investigators at the time of her arrest that she had given Mercedes to Ruiz to discipline because she was not being compliant at home. Jordan, the child’s older sister, was treated better but testified she was forced to participate in some of the punishment. Ruiz chronicled the abuse on video captured by cellphones and Ring cameras in a closet where Mercedes was placed for time outs.

Ruiz forced Mercedes to eat feces and drink urine, made the child hold heavy objects for hours, and stuck thumbtacks into the bottoms of her feet. She also was bound to a pole that forced her arms to reach out in a crucifix-type position and was left like that for hours.

A Bexar County medical examiner who performed the autopsy told investigators that the signs of “extreme abuse and torture” were obvious.

On Monday, McCray said his client underwent a clinical evaluation and was diagnosed with major depression and PTSD stemming from childhood trauma. He said Mendoza was sexually assaulted by her stepfather and physically abused by her birth mother, who was later investigated for abuse that led to the death of Mendoza’s stepbrother.

Mendoza was found to be “well below average intelligence” during her evaluation, McCray told the court. She “didn’t realize” the injuries Mercedes sustained were life-threatening, he said, causing people in court to burst out in laughter — and one of the witnesses to be kicked out of the courtroom.

The witness, Emily Losoya, an aunt of the child's biological father, said she had developed a relationship with Mendoza after she gave birth to Mercedes, her great-niece. But like the three other witnesses who testified, Losoya said it was clear Mendoza favored Jordan over Mercedes.

“She would show love to Jordan and not a lot to Mercedes,” Losoya said.

Losoya said she received a concerning phone call from Mendoza in December 2021, months before Mercedes died. "The conversation was just her saying that she was tired of Mercedes and that Mercedes would cry for no reason and she was bad,” Losoya recalled.

She and Mercedes’ biological father both said they offered to take the girl but never heard back from Mendoza.

Child Protective Services investigator Cindy Lima-Caceres told the judge that Mercedes and Jordan both were removed from Mendoza’s custody in 2016 because Mercedes was not receiving enough nutrition and was failing to thrive. It was one of six cases filed against Mendoza by CPS, she said.

Lima-Caceres said Mendoza had a meeting with CPS scheduled for Feb. 2, 2022, but didn’t show up. Mercedes died five days later.