HOUSTON – A south Houston man is now sentenced to four and a half decades behind bars for beating his baby to death.
The baby’s mother is also facing the same first-degree murder charge in a pending trial for her role in the 2018 killing.
As part of his plea deal, Robin will testify against the mother, Katharine White, and cannot appeal the conviction of his punishment. He would have to serve at least half of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
“Child victims are the most innocent victims so when anything happens to them there’s no justification for it,” said Attorney Gilbert Sawtelle who prosecuted the case for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Jason Robin is 28 years old, now sentenced to 45 years in prison for the killing.
“We’re here to stand up for innocent victims, and it’s hard to imagine a more innocent victim than a newborn baby,” Harris County DA Kim Ogg said. “Baby Jazmine deserved to live, and we have worked hard since her death to get justice for her.”
After spending two months in the neonatal intensive care unit, a healthy baby Jazmine was released to Robin and her mother, and brought to their rented house on Ebbtide on the south side. Two weeks later, Jazmine was dead.
An autopsy showed that baby Jazmine had at least 70 to 80 total fractures, including dozens of rib fractures and long-bone fractures.
“Two skull fractures, both old and new brain bleed, old and new bleeds on her spinal cord, bilateral hemorrhages which is bleeding by in the eyes,” Sawtelle said.
Originally charged with capital murder for the killing, Robin accepted a plea deal for first-degree murder in exchange for testifying against White.
“Both defendants took the baby to Memorial Hermann in Pearland,” Sawtelle said.
White is also charged with murder. Prosecutors said there was chronic methamphetamine use in their home, though White’s alleged role in her baby’s death is unclear.
“It was repeated traumatic events that this little girl in her short life span had to go through,” Sawtelle said.
“That’s sick, this baby didn’t ask to be in this world,” said Melody Godbolt who now rents the home where Jazmine was brutally beaten. She didn’t know the family that lived there some five years ago, but the news is heavy on her mind.
“I am about to move because it’s uncomfortable to know…that’s like bad spirited. This house needs to be anointed,” she said.