Daylee Joe Robertson
April 23, 2008 - April 24,
2008
Daylee Joe Robertson was named
after his sisters, Daytona and Kailee who had both died before him. Dakota
died of a head injury which was believed to have been inflicted by her
stepmother and Kailee died at a day care center.
Tommy Robertson had warned
authorities that his wife, who was pregnant
with their son and was in
court facing charges of murdering Dakota, was
suicidal. A judge was set
to let Katie Robertson go free on bond. Dakota was
the first of Tommy's children
to die. Katie was being charged with first degree
murder in the death of her
stepdaughter on February 27, 2008.
Before marrying Tommy, Katie
had lived with a man named Mike Hundley.
Together, they had a daughter
and named her Kailee. Kailee had died while at
a home day care center where
she had been left in a laundry bathroom still
strapped into a carseat that
was too small for her. Kailee was left in the room
for over two hours and she
just stopped breathing. Jessica Cummings is
charged with involuntary
manslaughter.
Katie's mother, Rhonda Cornejo,
said Katie visited Kailee's grave every day. She also said that there were
no signs that Katie was about to try to commit suicide. Mike Hundley had
been to visit Kailee's grave as well and found a note that appeared to
have been written by Katie. Mike turned the note over to Tommy and Tommy
informed the police about the note. Tommy was told to bring the note in
on Wednesday, it was Monday when he called. The exact wording would not
be remembered by either man, though they agree it said something along
the line of "I'll be with you soon".
The same day that Tommy was
instructed to bring the note in, is the same day that Katie was taken to
Wichita Hospital in critical condition after a possible
drug overdose. Daylee Joe
Robertson was delivered by emergency C-section
on that same day. Daylee
was born prematurely, at 24 weeks and would only
live to be about 20 hours
old before he died. Tommy was able to hold his son
before he died and he also
allowed Mike Hundley to hold him:
"I just thought it was
correct. He said he wanted
very much to be part
of the baby's life."
Tommy would place the blame
for his sons death on the legal system for
allowing Katie to go free
on bond after being charged with murdering his two
year old daughter. Tommy
thought that if she had been in custody, his son
would still be healthy and
safe inside his mothers womb. Authorities say that
they acted as quickly as
possible after they were informed about the concerns
that Tommy had and they were
taking steps to revoke her bond:
"We moved forward as
quickly as we could"
Kim Parker, chief deputy
district attorney
Mark Orr, the public defender
who represents Katie said that her condition
was stable and she was improving
and that he couldn't comment further about
her. Rhonda Cornejo said
that Katie has been wrongly accused:
"Katie's rights have
to be protected here as well.
Her right to privacy
has been trampled on."
Rhonda said that Katie was
upset about what had happened"
"She's just devastated.
She's lost three children in two months."
Rhonda also commented on how
her daughter had already been condemned in the media. She said her daughter
was awake and in stable condition:
"She's a good mother.
No one will know that
We're just hopeful
that things will work out OK,"
Tommy claims that the system
was more worried about Katies rights to be out
of jail than they were about
the care of his unborn son. Tommy didn't place
the blame on any one person,
he blamed the system.
District Judge Eric Yost said
he will accept responsibility for the being the one
to set the $100,000. bond:
"The decision is mine,
if the bond is too high or too low, then
that responsibility
rests with me. Inherent in the risks of this
job is that you set
bond on people, and sometimes tragic
things occur."
Kim Parker commented that
the bond given to Kaitie was typical for the charge
that she faced. She also
said that the $100,000. is consider to be high. She
said of Tommy:
"Mr. Robertson is going
through an incredible amount of pain,
and we can certainly
appreciate it,"
Kim Parker then said that
the legal system has rules and limitations that be
hard for someone to understand.
Kim said that as soon as authorities had been informed of Katie's intentions,
they acted immediately to get a hearing set up.
Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz
defended the way the case was handled:
"This is a very unusual
case, we've got two detectives assigned
to it. We're doing
the best we can with a very complex
family situation. The
judges are faced with bond decisions
every day, and they
do the best they can, and we respect
the judges on that."
An autopsy was done on Daylee,
it was said that it could take weeks to get the
results and find out if Daylee
had any drugs in his system from his mothers
attempted suicide. Katie's
family is claiming that Tommy Robertson, her estranged husband, is
not the father of Daylee saying that he admitted in court documents that
he didn't even know she was pregnant and was not the father of this child.
There is now a court battle trying to decide who has the
rights to bury Daylee.
Authorities were trying to
figure out if state laws would allow additional
charges to be filed against
Katie Robertson for the death of Daylee. Tom Stoltz
said that the detective handling
the case didn't learn of the possible suicide
until a few hours before
a hearing was scheduled to decide if bond should be
revoked due to violations
on Katie's part. Tom said that detectives had become
aware of a note with suspicious
language and would not say more.
Katies bond agreement forbid
her to have contact with Tommy and Mike. The
bond hearing came about due
to Tommy said that Katie had followed him to
Towne East Square and then
to the Patrol East Police Substation. Tommy had
gone there to report that
she had been following him. An officer checked the
area outside to see if Katie's
vehicle was there and he reported that he didn't
see it. Police gave this
information to prosecutors and a bond revocation
motion was filed.
Tommy's father, Rob Roberson
talked about the last hours of his grandons
life. Daylee Joe Robertson
weighed 1 pound 9 ounces:
"We got to see him.
We got to hold him"
Tommy Robertson and Mike Hundley
have formed a friendship as a result of
the deaths of these three
children. They have formed a support group and they talk to eachother every
day.
"We know what each other's
feeling,"
Mike Hundley
Please visit the pages of
Daylee's sisters, on my site:
Daytona
Joe-Lei Robertson
Kailee
Rhianne Marie Hundley
For information about preventing
child abuse in the state of Kansas, click the links below. If they can't
help you, ask for someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help
for an abused child!
The
Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund
|
