AUSTIN, Texas – After the execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson was delayed, the Office of the Texas Attorney General has released the autopsy report for Roberson’s daughter, Nikki Curtis, who he was convicted of killing and sentenced to die for.
The Attorney General’s Office said they are doing this to correct “falsehoods” they say are being amplified by a coalition interfering with the capital punishment proceedings.
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According to the Attorney General’s Office, 2-year-old Nikki Curtis was brought to the hospital close to death with extensive bruising to her chin, face, ears, eyes, shoulder, and mouth in 2002.
“Emergency Room Nurse Andrea Sims, who saw Nikki before medical intervention, testified at trial that, in addition to the bruising, Nikki had a handprint on her face, and that the back of her skull was bruised and “mushy.” Robert Roberson, Nikki’s father, had a history of violently abusing his daughter, and witnesses testified in trial that they were afraid to leave Nikki alone with him because he would repeatedly “whip” her whenever the baby cried,” the AG’s Office said.
Testimony showed Roberson would often strike Nikki “hard” with his hands, a board, or a paddle, and on at least one instance threw her off the bed.
Robert Roberson’s own mother said at one time, “One of these days he’s going to kill her and it’s going to be too late for anyone to do anything about it,” according to the AG’s Office.
“According to doctors testifying at the trial, Nikki died from substantial blunt force head injuries that clearly indicated the girl had been struck. The evidence of blunt force trauma precluded the possibility that the child died from being “shaken.” Nikki was abused by her father and died due to the trauma he inflicted. After hearing this evidence and countless hours of testimony about Roberson’s pattern of losing his temper and violently abusing his daughter, a jury of his peers convicted him of murder in 2003, sentencing Roberson to the death penalty for beating his own daughter so viciously that she died. The law in Texas is clear: the prosecution must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt as to every element of the offense as it is charged in the indictment. Roberson was charged with capital murder for intentionally and knowingly causing the death of a child by causing blunt force head injuries,” the AG’s Office said.
The AG’s Office cited testimony from Dr. Jill Urban, the medical examiner who conducted Curtis’ autopsy, who stated photographic evidence showed Nikki’s head had been repeatedly struck leaving clear impact wounds totally incompatible with merely being violently shaken.
“Dr. Urban’s findings were reviewed by six supervising medical examiners at the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, all of whom agreed and signed off on her autopsy report. In 2016, when Roberson’s case was being appealed, Dr. Urban unequivocally affirmed that she “quite clearly defined multiple impact sites to the head and ruled that the death was due to blunt force injuries,” the AG’s Office said.
The AG’s Office also said Roberson repeatedly changed his story during the investigation and trial.
“When Roberson brought the nearly lifeless Nikki to the hospital, he claimed to the nurses that she had merely fallen off the bed. Then he told different nurses that his daughter had hit her head on a table next to the bed. When questioned by the police, Roberson reverted back to the story that Nikki had simply fallen out of bed. Later, in his official statement to law enforcement, Roberson professed ignorance as to what caused the blunt force injuries to Nikki’s head and blamed his daughter for being clumsy and falling often,” the AG’s Office said.
The AG’s Office also said Roberson confessed to slapping his daughter to “wake her up” before telling his girlfriend at the time, Teddie Cox, that Curtis had hit her head on “the brick” in the bedroom despite police noting that there was only carpet in the room.
“When Teddie Cox asked Roberson directly if he had killed Nikki, Teddie Cox testified that Roberson said, “that if he did do it, he don’t remember, that he snapped, and he don’t remember doing it.” Similarly, Roberson initially told Dr. Kelly Goodness—who was one of the defense’s own witnesses—that he did not remember what happened to Nikki but then later confessed that he had lost his temper and began abusing Nikki. The jury also heard that Roberson, who had over a dozen prior arrests, had strangled his ex-wife with a coat hanger, punched her in the face and broke her nose while she was pregnant, and beat her with a fireplace shovel. The jury also heard that Roberson was the girl’s sole caretaker for the very first time on the day that Nikki’s deadly injuries were inflicted, and he was displeased to be obligated to care for the child, according to his girlfriend at the time,” the AG’s Office said.
Among the evidence the AG’s Office cited, according to a contemporaneous police report, Roberson admitted to his cellmate that he sexually assaulted Curtis.
The autopsy report can be read below:
The Attorney General’s Office also provided more details on the case which can be read below:
“Now, a coalition of activists and State legislators is interfering with the justice system in an unprecedented way in an attempt to stall or prevent Roberson’s execution. They have attempted to mislead the public by falsely claiming that Roberson was unfairly convicted through “junk science” concerning “shaken baby syndrome,”” the AG’s Office said.
State Representative Christina Morales (D), who is the only Houston area representative on the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, offered this statement in response to Ken Paxton and the Attorney General’s Office responses:
“The informant’s statement contradicts the DNA evidence. He is lying. The District Attorney chose not to introduce this unreliable statement during the trial because it lacked credibility. The so-called ‘informant’ was seeking leniency on his own cases and made up this story in hopes of getting a deal—something we have documentation to prove in his own letters requesting a break from the DA. Texas has already recognized the dangerous unreliability of jailhouse informant testimony. In 2017, the Republican-controlled legislature passed reforms to prevent uncorroborated statements like this from being used in trials. Governor Abbott signed it into law, and it was a critical step forward after the legislature’s deep dive into wrongful convictions showed that these types of statements have led to unjust outcomes. Under current Texas law, this fabricated statement would never be admissible in court because it is unreliable.”
Morales adds the committee is preparing a point-by-point rebuttal to Paxton.