A mother in Houston, Texas, was found guilty after she stabbed her 17-month-old daughter and threw the young child from a hotel balcony.
Channel Yonko’s verdict was revealed on Friday, March 6, in connection to the death of her daughter, Hannah Yonko, according to KHOU, KTRK and Houston Public Media.
Prosecutors said that Hannah died in October 2024 when Yonko threw the toddler from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Galveston, according to the outlets.
“I’m not a crier, but the first time I went through the evidence it got me tearing up,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Rinehart said to KHOU. “It was definitely an emotional case.”
Yonko’s defense team claimed that she was legally insane at the time of the killing, though jurors did not believe the argument. The jury deliberated for less than one hour before they revealed that they’d found her guilty, per the outlets.
“It’s such a sad case and I kept on thinking of Hannah,” Juror Jeanie Tinkle said, per KHOU. “We all wanted to give [Yonko] the benefit of the doubt, but we couldn’t get there.”
The outlets added that because the victim was younger than 10 years old, Texas law states that Yonko must automatically be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole since prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.
After the verdict was revealed, Chief Assistant District Attorney Casey Kirst thanked jurors for reviewing the evidence in order to come to their conclusion.
“We greatly appreciate the work the jury put in. They spent an entire week looking at some of the toughest evidence that there is to look at,” Kirst said, according to KHOU. “We appreciate the work that they put in and how quickly they delivered such a swift verdict.”
Kirst also said that the case has stayed with her since Hannah died.
“This was probably the most difficult case I will face in my career. I have been on this case since the day it happened,” she said. However, she added that the emotional toll the case has taken on her “has been worth every second fighting for Hannah.”
Officers first learned of the case when they responded to reports of an abandoned child around 9:45 a.m. on October 23, 2024, after the girl was found on the pavement on 59th Street just off Seawall Boulevard, according to a Galveston Police Department press release shared at the time.
Hannah was found bleeding on the pavement outside the hotel. She was still alive when first responders reported to the scene, and she was rushed by EMS to the trauma center at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Police said that she had died soon after she was taken to the hospital.
Hannah suffered three puncture wounds during the incident, according to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by People.
Meanwhile, court documents stated that hotel surveillance footage showed the child falling from the hotel balcony. Amid the investigation into the toddler’s death, police recovered a bag from a hotel garage trash can that contained a “skinning” knife, toys and children’s snacks.
