Jury convicts Kansas mother of child endangerment in daughter’s death
A Leavenworth County jury has found a 24-year-old Atchison, Kansas, woman guilty in the death and endangerment of her 18-month-old daughter in 2023, according to a news release.
Following a two-day trial in Leavenworth County District Court, the jury found Liberti N. Figueroa guilty on Tuesday of two counts of aggravated endangering a child.
The jury also found Figueroa not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Figueroa’s daughter, Saraphina Avarose Sanchez, died Oct. 18, 2023. An autopsy determined that Saraphina died from head trauma that caused internal bleeding, according to a news release from the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office.
According to the news release, the child endangerment charges stemmed from two separate incidents in 2023, less than a month apart.
The first incident occurred on Sept. 20, 2023, when Saraphina suffered burns. Figueroa told investigators that an ashtray tipped over and fell onto the victim, who was lying on a bed at their Leavenworth apartment.
The second incident occurred on Oct. 18, 2023. Emergency medical crews responded to their apartment on a report of a child not breathing. Saraphina was taken to a hospital, where hospital staff pronounced her dead.
On the day of her daughter’s death, Figueroa told police she had left for work around 9 a.m. that day. Her daughter was sick and sleeping when she left, according to the news release.
Her boyfriend of a couple of months was left to supervise the girl and her 4-year-old brother, according to court documents.
Figueroa returned to the apartment about 1 p.m., but didn’t check on her daughter until 5 p.m. She told police that she and some friends had smoked marijuana inside the apartment. Evidence also showed she had left to buy marijuana, according to the news release.
The victim’s brother allegedly told investigators that he dropped her while trying to take her out of the crib, according to court documents.
Prosecutors charged Figueroa with two counts of aggravated endangering a child and involuntary manslaughter on Feb. 19.
While prosecutors didn’t accuse Figueroa of directly inflicting the injuries, they argued that she acted recklessly by placing her daughter in a situation where she was endangered, which ultimately resulted in her death.
Sentencing is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 19 in Leavenworth County District Court.
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM.
