The family of a 3-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by her mother’s boyfriend is calling for the man responsible for the gruesome crime to be sentenced to death.
Robert Fisher, 34, pleaded guilty this week in court and confessed that he killed 3-year-old Josefina Cunningham last year.
Authorities revealed that Josefina, who family members call Josie, died on July 7, 2023, after her mother found her unresponsive at a home in Rensselaer, New York.
First responders were called and Josefina was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Fisher, who had been staying with Josefina and her mother, was initially charged with obstruction after police said he tried to re-enter the home during their investigation. Authorities later found enough evidence to charge him with aggravated sexual abuse, assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.
He was finally indicted for murder and rape in late July 2023.
Fisher admitted to raping and killing the child while he was babysitting. He also told prosecutors how he carried out the crimes, which backed up the evidence prosecutors outlined in court documents that shared disturbing details of graphic sexual abuse and assault that Josefina suffered.
“He told us that he administered drugs to the child,” Rensselaer County Assistant District Attorney Antonia Edwards told News10. “They were prescription drugs the mother was prescribed. He then raped the child. The child then died, and he did try to clean her up with Clorox wipes.”
Fisher faces 20 years to life in prison for the murder. Family members said they want a death sentence in his case, but prosecutors said that’s not an option since the state of New York has outlawed the death penalty.
“He’s getting the harshest punishment possible. He’s got life on the back end and a significant sentence in the front. The death penalty is not an option in New York,” Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said. “I think all of us, digging deep in our souls, would like to see something like that happen to someone like that but that’s not the law.”
The family still plans to fight for harsher punishment, saying that life in prison doesn’t cut it for the heinous crimes Fisher committed against a small child.
“To me, it’s not over. I still plan on pursuing that death penalty,” Josephina’s older brother Jy’Quan Stewart told the US Sun. “I want him to pay for what he did. People that commit these crimes, they need to pay, they need to get the death penalty.”
Stewart, 23, said he always felt uneasy about Fisher from the moment he started dating his mother.
“Something felt a little off inside when I first met him. It was a little off. I just felt something in my gut,” Stewart remarked. “It was like [my mother] was hypnotized. She was too deep in love with him. It was actually kind of strange.”
What rattled Stewart even further was the fact that Fisher confessed to the killing two weeks before his trial to strike a plea deal with prosecutors. Stewart said his mother was also shocked since Fisher told police during his arrest that he didn’t do anything.
“I wanted them to go into details of what really happened that night. I want them to go really into detail. I want some good straight details because that could open up a lot of stuff,” Stewart told News10. “Trials like this, you know, attract national attention. This may open up some laws.”
Fisher will be sentenced on Aug. 6.
