Nikki

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Last Appeal, Episode 1 – “Nikki”

Host: Lester Holt
Production: NBC News / Dateline
Date: October 6, 2025
Case: Robert Roberson, scheduled for execution October 16th for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki.

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Episode Overview

Lester Holt travels to Texas to investigate the Robert Roberson case, a death row conviction for the murder of his daughter, Nikki. With execution looming, Holt interviews those involved in the case, including law enforcement, family, and defense attorney, exposing questions the original jury never considered and relaying the emotional weight of the story. The episode serves as both an intimate portrait of trauma and a deep dive into the mechanics of justice, innocence, and doubt.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Visiting Robert Roberson on Death Row

[01:15–01:59]

• Setting: Lester Holt sits in the Polanski Unit, Texas Death Row, face-to-face with Robert Roberson.
• Roberson’s Mindset:
  • “I'm at peace if it happens. But I'm not ready because I don't think I should be executed when I'm innocent.” (Roberson, 01:51)

2. The Day of the Incident

[02:41–07:16]

• Hospital Arrival: Nikki, unconscious and blue, is brought into the ER by Teddy Cox (Robert’s girlfriend, in a wheelchair) with Robert Roberson nearby.
• ER Nurse Kelly Garganis recalls:
  • “I saw that there was a jacket. So I took the jacket off and there was a baby in her lap that was blue. Literally, probably the bluest I've ever seen of a child.” (Kelly Garganis, 05:13)
• Initial Suspicions:
  • Roberson’s unemotional demeanor and the nature of Nikki’s injuries (mushy head, severe trauma) lead the ER staff to suspect abuse.
  • Roberson’s explanation: Nikki fell off a bed about 12 inches high. This was met with skepticism from both medical professionals and law enforcement.

3. Police Investigation

[07:16–10:58]

• Detective Brian Wharton enters:
  • Observes severe injuries and bruising. Robert seemed “very matter of fact, no emotion.”
• Investigation at Roberson’s house:
  • No signs of violence; the description of the fall seems improbable.
  • “He was hungry and so he wanted to go make a ham sandwich. ... It was odd. Again, it was odd to us that, yes, he wants to go make a ham sandwich.” (Det. Wharton, 10:43–10:53)
• Assessment:
  • Wharton quickly concludes the pieces point toward Robert harming Nikki.

4. Family Backstory: Nikki’s Life and Custody

[13:24–18:07]

• Lester visits Nikki’s grandparents, Larry and Verna Bowman:
  • The Bowmans raised Nikki for her first two years due to her mother Michelle’s addiction. “They were just typical babies, you know, me and mama was their mom and daddy.” (Larry Bowman, 17:15)
  • Robert only received custody of Nikki after his release from prison, shortly before Nikki’s death. The Bowmans had no say, as Texas prioritizes parental custody.
• Nikki’s last day:
  • The Bowmans recall the pain of handing Nikki back to Robert and their regret over not preventing what followed.

5. Medical Evidence and Expert Testimony

[18:15–19:12]

• Dr. Janet Squires (child abuse specialist):
  • Diagnosed the “triad” associated with shaken baby syndrome: brain swelling, bleeding behind the eyes, and on the brain.
  • Conclusion: Nikki was the victim of abuse, unlikely to survive.
  • The Bowmans had to make the decision to take Nikki off life support.

6. Arrest, Charges, and Trial Preparation

[20:33–24:07]

• Robert is arrested and charged with capital murder hours after Nikki’s death.
• Defense Attorney Steve Evans’ assessment:
  • “The evidence is going to come and bulldoze you.” (Evans, 21:00, 28:16)
  • Evans had previously represented Roberson in drug-related cases and found him non-violent, but struggled to believe Robert’s story.
  • Multiple plea deals (max. 50 years) offered and refused by Robert, who insisted on his innocence.
  • “Oh, hell, yes.” – Evans on whether accepting a plea deal would have been a win (24:51).

7. The Trial

[24:53–28:98]

• Witnesses:
  • ER Nurse (Kelly Garganis) testified about Roberson’s lack of affect: “I was very angry. I just remember that cold face.”
  • Detective Wharton testified, describing matter-of-fact behavior.
  • Dr. Squires and Medical Examiner Dr. Urban emphasized classic physical signs of shaken baby syndrome and multiple impacts to the head.
  • Teddy Cox (Robert’s girlfriend) and her daughter testified to prior violence and shaking incidents. Teddy’s daughter performed a teddy bear demonstration for the jury.
• Defense strategy:
  • Evans conceded that Robert had done “something” out of being overwhelmed, hoping for mitigation; did not argue complete innocence.

8. Sexual Assault Allegation

[27:07–27:52]

• Mid-trial, a nurse claimed possible sexual assault. Charge dropped midtrial, but highly prejudicial.
  • Evans tried for mistrial: “Why was that not grounds for a mistrial? ... This was pure inflammatory.” (Evans, 27:38–27:52)
  • Judge denied the motion.

9. Jury Deliberations & Verdict

[28:16–30:38]

• Terry Compton, Juror:
  • “They could see what was all going on in her brain and how much bleeding and how much this and how much that... I don’t know how you shake those images.” (Juror, 29:50–30:07)
  • Key moment: the stuffed bear demonstration had a major effect on jurors.
  • Deliberation was quick (~4 hours). The verdict: guilty, with a death sentence.

10. Aftermath & Rising Doubt

[30:38–31:35]

• After trial:
  • All appeals denied; Roberson’s guilt appeared certain.
  • Over a decade later, new doubts emerge as advocates re-examine the case.
  • “Every time I turn around, there was something new. I'm reading medical records and I'm about to fall out of my chair.” (Advocate, 31:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Roberson on Death Row:

  • “I'm at peace if it happens. But I'm not ready because I don't think I should be executed when I'm innocent.” (01:51)

• Detective on Roberson’s Demeanor:

  • “When we talked to him, we found him very matter of fact, no emotion. And so that made us kind of ... there was just something off, something's amiss.” (08:52)

• Defense Attorney on the State’s Case:

  • “The evidence is going to come and bulldoze you.” (21:00 / 28:16)

• Juror on Impactful Evidence:

  • “I sit there and thought, well, yeah, now I can see where ... if you have a man, Robert size, shaking a baby, I could see where it maybe could have done some violently brain damage.” (30:18)

• Family’s Regret:

  • “When I go to talking about her, it tears me up because I didn't do all I could to keep her from it. I don't know what else I could have done, you know?” (15:03)

• Looking Ahead – Detective Brian Wharton (who now expresses doubt):

  • “We made mistakes because we didn't have all the information.” (31:23)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [01:15] – Lester Holt meets Roberson on Death Row
• [04:45] – ER Nurse Kelly Garganis recounts the hospital morning
• [07:16] – Police investigation begins
• [13:24] – Lester meets Nikki’s grandparents, the Bowmans
• [18:15] – Medical evidence and shaken baby syndrome
• [20:33] – Arrest and charging of Roberson
• [22:33] – The trial as recalled by defense, police, and prosecution witnesses
• [24:53] – Key trial testimony (nurse, detective, medical experts, girlfriend, child witness)
• [27:07] – Sexual assault allegation and motion for mistrial denied
• [29:31] – Juror Terry Compton’s account of trial impact and deliberation
• [30:38] – Aftermath; hints of re-examined evidence and growing doubt

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Conclusion

The episode meticulously sets up not just the facts of Nikki’s death and the subsequent conviction of Robert Roberson, but also the mood and doubts that have grown around the case in the years since. The final act hints at new developments and possible errors in the original investigation and trial, raising the ultimate question: Is an innocent man about to be executed?

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Memorable Episode Tone

The tone is grave and questioning, with Lester Holt blending empathy for Nikki’s family with rigorous inquiry into the investigation and prosecution. The episode leans on first-hand emotional recollections, juxtaposed against the cold mechanics of policework and prosecution strategy.

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Next Episode Preview:
As execution nears, the series will dive into what the jury did not hear, new evidence unearthed long after Nikki’s death, and why even those who once built the case now urge a final review before it’s too late.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

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[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Good morning to you, Mr. Holt.

[Lester Holt]

How are you?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

I'm blessed. I'm blessed.

[Lester Holt]

I'm sitting in a plastic chair inside the notorious Polanski unit in West Livingston, Texas, death row. Across from me, a man named Robert Roberson. We got a lot to talk about. Yes, sir. He's a big guy, more than 6ft, wearing a white prison jumpsuit. We're so close, I could shake his hand if not for the pain of plexiglass between us. On October 16, Robert is scheduled to die by lethal injection. How are you preparing for your own death, your own execution?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

I'm at peace if it, if it happens. But I. I'm not ready because I don't think I should be executed when I'm innocent.

[Lester Holt]

In 2003, a jury convicted Robert of murdering his two year old daughter, Nikki. Prosecutors say the evidence is overwhelming.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Mr. Roberson took the life of his daughter. And I just remember that cold face. And I looked. And that poor little girl was just. She was dead.

[Lester Holt]

Some in Nikki's family believe Robert's date with death is long overdue. This is his third execution day. It's time.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

It's no more waiting.

[Lester Holt]

But a growing army is rallying behind Robert. They believe he is innocent.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I almost cannot believe what I'm reading.

[Lester Holt]

They argue his case urgently needs another look. Now, before it's too late.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

Let's take all this evidence, go back to the courtroom, go back to a jury and let them decide.

[Lester Holt]

As the days tick down to Robert's execution, I set off to East Texas I've never seen a picture of her like this. Beautiful. I'm on the hunt for answers about what happened to Nikki all those years ago, learning critical information the jury never got to hear. We're just fact checking on a document that was discovered here, finding details that have never been reported. Have you done interviews on this topic before?

[Steve Evans]

No, this was the very first.

[Lester Holt]

Is the state about to put an innocent man to death?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I am terrified that that is what we are racing towards.

[Lester Holt]

I'm Lester Holt and this is the Last Appeal, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 1 Nikki. It's September 2025, one month before Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed. I'm in Palestine, Texas, once a busy railroad hub. Today downtown looks more like an empty movie set. It's the town where two year old Nikki was taken to the hospital. On the morning of January 31, 2002, a man walked in pushing a woman in a wheelchair. Resting on her lap was Nikki. She was unconscious, barely breathing. A nurse named Kelly Garganis was the first to see Nikki that morning. Has she talked before?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

No.

[Lester Holt]

I'm with producer Dan Slappian. We wanted to speak with Kelly, so we stopped by her house. Hello? Hello?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Hello.

[Lester Holt]

Hi. Are you Kelly? Hi, I'm Lester Holt from NBC News.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

I'm one of my colleagues here.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I know. You're not like me. You look just like Lester.

[Lester Holt]

We're trying to contact you about a story we're working on around the Robert Roberson case. Kelly is wearing pink scrubs. She invites us in. Ed agrees to talk to me about that morning 23 years ago. So you've been working all day?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

At the same hospital?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Same hospital.

[Lester Holt]

Been there 28 years back when all this is happening. You were an ER nurse?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

Is the pediatric part of that job emotionally hard?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Can be, yes. Can be very emotionally. And like Nikki, the little girl. To this day, I'll never forget that day. A gentleman walks through the door, not the ambulance bay, but the main door, and there was a lady that was in a wheelchair. And I could tell she was in a hospital gown and there was something on her lap. And I saw that there was a jacket. So I took the jacket off and there was a baby in her lap that was blue. Literally, probably the bluest I've ever seen of a child. We went in the trauma room. When we started the head to toe assessment, the back of her head was soft and kind of mushy. And we were like. Something else is going on here.

[Lester Holt]

Kelly remembers leaving the trauma room to Grab Nikki's medical chart. That's when Robert Roberson approached her, saying he was Nikki's father.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And he looked at me and all he said to me, he said, she fell off the bed that far.

[Lester Holt]

I should point out you showed your hands now at about 12 inches, 12 inches behind.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

He told me, he said she fell off the bed about that far, yeah. And I looked at him because that made me a little suspicious.

[Lester Holt]

Something else stood out to her.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

He had a very flat affect. I just know his behavior was not what you would normally see if it was a father taking care of their child that fell off the bed.

[Lester Holt]

Kelly learned that Instead of calling 911, Robert called his girlfriend, Teddy Cox, the woman in the wheelchair. Turned out Teddy was a patient at the hospital recovering from surgery. She told Robert to rush Nikki over.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

He brought that baby into the hospital, went up to the second floor, put her in her lap, not breathing, put her coat over, and they nonchalantly came down to er. That's not normal.

[Lester Holt]

So many things weren't adding up about Robert Story. To Kelly and the rest of the medical team, Nikki's head injury seemed far more serious than a fall from a bed. They suspected Nikki was the victim of abuse, possibly at the hands of her father. A nurse picked up the phone and called police. Officers from the Palestine Police Department responded. When they saw how serious Nikki's condition was, they alerted their boss, Detective Brian Wharton.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

This is the emergency entrance to the hospital.

[Lester Holt]

The detective saw Robert in the waiting room. Nikki's grandparents were now there too. Do you remember the feeling of when you got eyes on Nikki?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

I can see her still laying on the examination table in the emergency room. Intubated, long hair. You want to sit down in a corner and cry? It's just not right. We shouldn't be here. This child is too young for this, I guess. We had been told that there was an injury on the back of her head, but we couldn't see it because of her hair. And so Nikki's head was shaved so that we could get a picture of this injury. Injury on the back of her head.

[Lester Holt]

Was. Was the injury then obvious to you?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

It was there, yes. It was obvious. There was a knot on the back of her head.

[Lester Holt]

Wharton also saw bruising on Nikki. He started asking Robert questions.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

When we talked to him, we found him very matter of fact, no emotion. And so that made us kind of put us on edge a little bit, I guess. There was just something off, something's amiss.

[Lester Holt]

Robert was telling you that she had fallen?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

Robert said he'd been home alone with Nikki. A strange cry woke him up. At about 5am he found Nikki on the floor. Robert said he kept her awake for a couple of hours, tried to comfort her. Then they both went back to sleep. At about 9am he said, his alarm went off. That's when he discovered Nikki was blue and didn't seem to be breathing. Detective Worden was suspicious of Robert's story. He asked him to take him to his house to walk through what happened.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

We didn't find anything that looked like violence. So there was no broken Sheetrock. There was no blood anywhere. There's no broken furniture, no broken dishes. Nothing looked like violence.

[Lester Holt]

No struggle?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

No. No. And so we went to the bedroom. We documented the height of the bed. We gathered the sheeting off the bed there. We took pictures of the bed.

[Lester Holt]

We found copies of those photos in court filings. They show a box spring and mattress propped up on cinder blocks. A Winnie the Pooh blanket is wedged beside the bed. Robert said after Nikki fell, he saw blood around her lips and a bruise under her chin.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

He had told us that, you know, he had seen some blood on her mouth and there was a wet washcloth that he had used to get the bl. Her mouth. So we. We recovered that wet washcloth.

[Lester Holt]

A photo of the washcloth shows just a few specks of blood on it. Then the detective said Robert did something that struck him as bizarre.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

He was hungry and so he wanted to go make a ham sandwich.

[Lester Holt]

That added to your anxiety about his.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

Yeah, it was. It was odd. Again, it was odd to us that, yes, he wants to go make a ham sandwich.

[Lester Holt]

I would think as a police officer, you get a read on a. On a case fairly quickly. Was this one where the pieces were coming together pretty quickly, that this man harmed his daughter?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

It sure felt like it, yeah.

[Lester Holt]

Wharton headed back to Palestine police headquarters with Robert. He checked Robert's criminal record and saw he had convictions. Drugs, burglary, writing bad checks, nothing violent. As Detective Wharton typed up Robert's statement, Nikki was rushed to the Children's Medical center in Dallas, her grandparents close behind. We were about to find out what they knew about the days leading up to Nikki's death and about a decision they made I'd find out that haunts them to this day.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

So I put her in the car.

[Lester Holt]

And she looked at me.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

I'll never forget, she looked at me like, what are you doing?

[Lester Holt]

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[Lester Holt]

It's one month before Robert Roberson's execution. We're driving down a two lane country road on the edge of Palestine. It's dotted with farms and patches of woods. We're heading to the home of Nikki's grandparents, Larry and Verna Bowman. Yeah, so we're trying to meet up with Larry Bowman. We've been unable to reach him, so we've found his address and we've driven to it. And we're about to walk and knock on the door. How you doing?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Sorry to bother you.

[Lester Holt]

The Bowmans are home and invite us in. Strowman, how are you? Larry is in his late 70s. He's wearing blue jeans, a gray shirt and suspenders.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Baby, turn the TV down a little bit.

[Lester Holt]

His wife Verna is sitting on an old leather couch watching a black and white western.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I remember you.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Lester on tv.

[Lester Holt]

On tv.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Yeah, that's where I remember seeing you.

[Lester Holt]

We sit around a worn wooden kitchen table. Verna lights up when I ask her about her granddaughter. Can you tell me about Nikki? Kind of little girl she was.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Oh, she's precious.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

She was a doll. Yeah, yeah, she.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And she could be so funny.

[Lester Holt]

She hands me a framed photo of Nikki. Vern is showing Me this picture of. Oh, I've never seen a picture of her like this beautiful girl. It's a professional shot, like you'd take in a mall. Nikki is wearing a black velvet dress. A headband sits on her short brown hair.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

A friend of ours had that picture made. And I think, isn't that the dress that we buried her in? When I go to talking about her, it tears me up because I didn't do all I could to keep her from it. I don't know what else I could have done, you know?

[Lester Holt]

The day before Nikki ended up in the hospital, Robert Roberson had asked the Bowmans to babysit. He wanted to be with his girlfriend, Teddy, who was in the hospital recovering from surgery. But as bedtime rolled around, they asked Robert to pick Nikki up.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

We called him, and I said, robert, you need to take care of the baby tonight because mama's got a cold. But when he come to pick her up, he picked her up right out here. She did not want to go to him, but I didn't think nothing about it. I thought, well, that's just because she don't want to leave me and mama, you know? So I put her in the car.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

And she looked at me.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

I'll never forget. She looked at me like, daddy, what are you doing?

[Lester Holt]

So when did you learn that she had been taken to the hospital?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

The next morning we went to the hospital. He told us she fell off the bed and hurt her head. The moment I saw my baby laying there and gurney, I knew she was gone. I knew he had done something. We sat in the waiting room. The doctors was working on the baby, trying to get her revived. And we had a word of prayer with the family, and Robert got up and left.

[Lester Holt]

The Bowmans tell me they were the ones who raised Nikki for the first time, two years of her life.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

She was born on, like, Wednesday or Thursday, and we got her the next day.

[Lester Holt]

Larry's daughter Michelle is Nikki's mother. Michelle struggled with addiction. Nikki was taken from her the day she was born. She lived with the Bowmans along with another one of Michelle's children.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

I mean, they were just typical babies, you know, me and mama was their mom and daddy.

[Lester Holt]

So what about Nikki's father, Robert Roberson? How did you know about Robert?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Michelle told us who the daddy was.

[Lester Holt]

Robert and Michelle were only together for a short time before he ended up in prison on a parole violation. He found out Michelle was pregnant. After he was released from prison, he said he wanted custody and got Nikki shortly after her second birthday.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

She had never Been with anybody but us up until Robert got her. And we really had no choice on that matter. State of Texas. As long as one of the parents is able to take care of them, grandparents don't have a say.

[Lester Holt]

Do you think Robert was capable?

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Well, he seemed like a nice fella.

[Lester Holt]

But now he was suspected of abusing Nikki. Robert was told he couldn't go to Dallas to be with his daughter. It was the Bowmans who were at her bedside. Dr. Janet Squires, a pediatrician who specialized in child abuse investigations, examined Nikki and confirmed she'd suffered a massive brain injury. She noted bleeding behind Nikki's eyes and on her brain, which was also swollen. Those three symptoms, known as the triad, were the classic signs of shaken baby syndrome. Dr. Squires called the Palestine Police Department with her findings. She said Nikki was a victim of physical abuse and was unlikely to survive. Larry Bowman told us a judge in Palestine called the hospital informing the staff that Robert was no longer allowed to make decisions about Nikki.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Matter of fact, Judge Bentley told them that we were the parents.

[Lester Holt]

Did you have to make the decision to take her off support? Yeah. Yeah, we did.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

They, before they took her off the life machine, they let mama hold her before they shut her off, but they said there was no, no hope.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

Soon as they took the machine off, she was gone. We've never forgotten her. It was a song that every time I sang it, I'd get. I still. Oh, I want to see him smile. Look upon his face There to sing forever of his saving grace on the streets of glory Let me lift my voice Cares are past Home at last Ever to rejoice.

[Lester Holt]

On Friday, February 1, 2002 at 7:04pm, 2 year old Nikki was declared dead. That same night, a judge signed an arrest warrant. Palestine police took Robert Roberson into custody. Prosecutors charged him with capital murder. They were seeking the death penalty. The trial was about to begin and Robert's attorney knew he had his work cut out for him.

[Steve Evans]

The evidence is going to come and bulldoze you.

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[Lester Holt]

Robert Roberson was locked up in the Anderson County Jail, accused of killing his two year old daughter Nikki. Almost a year to the day after her death, opening statements in his trial began. I mean, let's be honest, the crime that he was committed, convicted of is horrifying. You know, the death of a child is a horrible, horrible thing and a difficult thing to really reckon. The prosecutor at Robert's trial, Doug Lowe, declined to speak with me, but I was able to track down Robert's lead defense attorney who'd been appointed by the court. His name is Steve Evans. I met up with him near downtown Palestine.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

There he is.

[Lester Holt]

Hey Lester, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well. Have you done interviews on this topic before?

[Steve Evans]

No, this is the very first.

[Lester Holt]

Evans has practiced law in Palestine for most of his life. Robert was no stranger to him. He defended him before it was a.

[Steve Evans]

Drug issue and he did a short period of time on that.

[Lester Holt]

So when you looked down at your piece of paper and saw Robert Roberson was your defendant, what did you think?

[Steve Evans]

I was surprised because Robert really didn't have the personality that was aggressive or violent.

[Lester Holt]

Still, after Evans read the medical reports, even he didn't buy his client's story about Nikki falling from the bed.

[Steve Evans]

Something happened to that child. You know, that child didn't just have one or two very remote injuries. That child had a number of injuries and he was the only one there. This happened at a night where this is the only time he had that child alone.

[Lester Holt]

When the prosecutor offered a plea deal, Evans urged Robert to accept it. How many offers plea offers came Robert Sway?

[Steve Evans]

About five or six.

[Lester Holt]

And they were all for life without parole, Without.

[Steve Evans]

None of them were. They were all for years. The highest number of years that we had was 50.

[Lester Holt]

And when you got the pleas, that would have been a victory for you?

[Steve Evans]

Oh, hell, yes.

[Lester Holt]

But Robert refused again and again, insisting he was innocent. When its trial began in February 2003, the state came out swinging. The prosecution's first witness, the ER nurse with the pink scrubs, Kelly Garganis, she remembered telling the jury that she'd been so disgusted by Robert's behavior, she wanted to spit on it.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I was very angry. I just remember that cold face. And I looked and that poor little girl was just. She was dead.

[Lester Holt]

Detective Brian Wharton testified too. Did you make eye contact with Robert.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

At some point in the trial? I had to point him out.

[Lester Holt]

Did you have particular feeling toward him at that moment?

[Detective Brian Wharton]

I always tried really hard not to be an angry man.

[Lester Holt]

The heart of the prosecution's case was expert medical testimony. Dr. Janet Squires, the pediatric specialist in Dallas, told the jury Nikki suffered bleeding behind her eyes and on her brain, which was swollen. Three symptoms that were classic signs of shaken baby syndrome. Then came the medical examiner, Dr. Jill Urban. She testified that she'd observed multiple impacts on Nikki and that her injuries were consistent with blows to the head or shaking. And prosecutors had a surprising witness, Teddy Cox, Robert's girlfriend at the time, the woman in the wheelchair with Nikki on her lap. She testified that she'd seen Robert lose his temper with Nikki before. She'd seen him spank her and once even saw him shake Nikki. Teddy's 10 year old daughter said she'd seen Robert shake Nikki about 10 different times. The prosecutors asked her to shake a teddy bear the same way she'd seen Robert shake Nikki. Robert's lawyer knew it wasn't looking good. Were you keeping a close eye on the jurors?

[Steve Evans]

Yeah, we knew it was bad right from the get go. The time it was to me that it was over was the autopsy photos. Those were the most revealing, horrid photos I've ever seen.

[Lester Holt]

But that was the least of his worries. On top of murder, Robert was facing another charge. One of the nurses who examined Nikki in the hospital told the jury she believed Nikki had been the victim of a sexual assault. But midway through the trial, prosecutors ended up dropping the charge. Robert's lawyer thought the explosive allegation was prejudicial and the trial should have ended right there. Why was that not grounds for a mistrial?

[Steve Evans]

I moved for it.

[Lester Holt]

It's a pretty emotional topic, obviously. And there was no evidence of any sexual abuse.

[Steve Evans]

Absolutely.

[Larry or Verna Bowman]

None.

[Lester Holt]

None.

[Steve Evans]

This was pure inflammatory.

[Lester Holt]

The judge denied Evans motion for a mistrial. After three days, the prosecution rested. Now Evans had to present a defense. He told us he didn't argue Robert was innocent because he thought the evidence against him was overwhelming. His strategy, he says, was to try to save Robert's life by conceding he did something, but he didn't mean to kill his daughter.

[Steve Evans]

The evidence is going to come and bulldoze you. Either you go in, say I had nothing to do with this at all, which not many people are going to buy or believe, or you accept a degree of responsibility, at least it may give you a basis upon which the jury to believe you.

[Lester Holt]

His argument was that Robert was an overwhelmed parent.

[Steve Evans]

This was beyond his ability to deal with it, either mentally or emotionally, to be able to deal with a young child.

[Lester Holt]

Evans called a witness to the stand to try to counter what Robert's girlfriend, Teddy Cox, had said about seeing Robert shaking Nikki in the past. Patricia Conklin, Teddy's sister, said Teddy had a reputation for being a liar. She testified she'd seen Robert with Nikki many times and said he was gentle and that she'd never seen him be violent with Nikki or anyone. Robert's fate was now in the hands of the jury. Hi, Terry. Hi. It's so nice to meet you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Nice to meet you.

[Lester Holt]

Thank you. Terry Compton was one of the jurors. How much were you paying attention to Robert and his reaction?

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I would glance over and mainly when I would glance, you would see him just sitting there in the chair with his hands on top of the table. He basically just sat there.

[Lester Holt]

Terry said Robert's attorney was right about the impact of those autopsy photos.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

They could see what was all going on in her brain and how much bleeding and how much this and how much that and they actually passed those or showed those pictures in court.

[Lester Holt]

I don't know how you shake those images. Mm. Mm.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

You don't.

[Lester Holt]

But what stood out even more was that stuffed toy demonstration. She remembers how violently the girl shook the teddy bear, but it was. It obviously had an effect on you.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Oh, yeah. I sit there and thought, well, yeah, now I can see where, you know, if you have a man, Robert size, shaking a baby, I could see where it maybe could have done some violently, brain damage.

[Lester Holt]

Terry said there hadn't been been much debate in the deliberation room.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

I'd say everybody pretty much had their mind made up.

[Lester Holt]

It took the jury only about four hours to find Robert guilty of murder. Robert was sentenced to die and transported to death row. More than a decade passed. All of Robert's appeals were denied. His guilt seemed undeniable, certain. That's when, out of nowhere, came a woman who refused to let Robert and his case die quietly.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Every time I turn around, there was something new. I'm reading medical records and I'm about to fall out of my chair.

[Lester Holt]

Next time. In the last appeal, when people read.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

That he murdered his daughter, they're not.

[Lester Holt]

Reading the whole story.

[Detective Brian Wharton]

We made mistakes because we didn't have all the information.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

We were both threatened if we didn't get on board with accusing Robert. If they go through with it, they're killing an innocent man.

[Lester Holt]

The Last Appeal is a production of Dateline and NBC News. It is written and produced by Dan Slappian, Liz Brown Kurloff and Lynn Keller. Our field producers are Nick McElroy and Rachel Yang with production help from Sam Springer. It's edited by Colin Dow and Greg Smith with help from Deb Brown and David Varga from NBC News. Audio Sound mixing by Rob Byers, Joe Plourd and Rich Cutler. Head of audio production is Bryson Barnes, Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.

[Reporter/Interviewer]

Foreign hey everyone, it's Jenna Bush Hager from Today with Jenna and friends. Reminding you to check out my podcast, Open Book with Jenna and this week's episode, I sit down with bestselling author Tim B. Locke. We talk about her one of a kind audiobook, Someday Now Finding Love after Loss and the Power of Storytelling to Heal. You can listen to the full conversation by searching Open Book with Jenna. Wherever you get your podcast.