Police say a mother killed her 17-month-old daughter when she threw her from the third floor of a Texas hotel.
Galveston Police Chief Doug Balli told media that his officers were called to the Beachfront Palms Hotel around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday to help a child who had been left alone.
A probable cause arrest affidavit said that when they got there, they saw the girl, who was later named as Hannah Yonko, wrapped in a blanket and barely alive after having been hurt in a fall and having three holes poked in her back. Even though paramedics rushed her to a hospital trauma center, doctors were not able to save her. A short time later, they declared her dead.
At the same time, police released a picture of the woman who witnesses said was with Hannah. A probable cause arrest document said that woman was later found to be Channel Jasmine Yonko, the mother of the little girl, who is 30 years old. A police officer found her about a half mile away.
She was upset and asked the cop to help her. Police wrote that Yonko reportedly talked about her daughter and said she might be “sick.” Yonko was taken to the police station to be questioned. She brought her sister with her to the station as well.
Police say Yonko refused to give officers her name and asked to speak to a lawyer. The cops were told by her sister that she, Yonko, and Hannah had been staying at the Beachfront Palms Hotel. The sister left Yonko and Hannah to talk to her fiancé at The Victorian hotel on Seawall Boulevard while they were checking out of the hotel that morning.
Soon after, Yonko met up with her sister at The Victorian. She was walking with a baby. The sister thought Hannah was in the stroller, but she didn’t see her. The sister said Yonko told her over and over, “Don’t go back to the hotel,” when she said she was going back to Beachfront Palms to pack up her things.
The three people were sleeping in room 217 at the Beachfront Palms hotel, according to the police. On the sidewalk outside the hotel, police found a trash bag in a bin with a key card for room 217, a “skinning” knife with a black handle, toys, snacks, and diapers inside.
According to the statement, investigators also found surveillance video that showed Hannah falling. On a different video, Yonko was seen pushing her still-living baby in her stroller.
Police nabbed Yonko on a charge of murder with a fatal outcome. She has no bond and is being held at the Galveston County Jail.
“What a terrible crime!” “When they are with their mother, all children deserve to feel safe,” Balli said in a statement. “Our goal at the Galveston Police Department is to get Hannah justice and make sure all the kids in our community are safe.”