AI Summary
5 min readOn the morning of January 31st, 2002, a man walked into a hospital in Palestine, Texas, pushing a woman in a wheelchair. Resting on her lap was two-year-old Nikki, unconscious and barely breathing. A nurse named Kelly Garganis remembers pulling a jacket off the child and realizing something was deeply wrong. Twenty-three years later, Lester Holt sits across from Robert Robertson inside the Polansky unit in West Livingston, Texas—Death Row. Robert is scheduled to die by lethal injection on October 16th, 2025. “I’m at peace if it happens,” he tells Holt, “but I’m not ready because I don’t think I should be executed when I’m innocent.” In 2003, a jury convicted Robert of murdering his daughter. Now, with weeks to go before his execution, Holt is in East Texas hunting for answers the jury never heard.
The crime and the conviction
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Dateline: Missing In America
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:03) **A Man on Death Row** - Lester Holt introduces the subject, Robert Robertson, who is days away from execution for the murder of his daughter.
- 2 (02:26) **The Race Against Time** - Holt sets the scene in Palestine, Texas, one month before the execution, and begins investigating the day Nikki was brought to the hospital.
- 3 (03:02) **The Morning Nikki Arrived** - Holt recounts the moment a man pushed a woman in a wheelchair with an unconscious Nikki on her lap into the hospital on January 31st, 2002.
- 4 (03:27) **Interview with the First Nurse** - Holt meets nurse Kelly Garganis, who was working that morning and agrees to speak about the case for the first time.
- 5 (04:48) **The Turning Point in the Trauma Room** - Kelly reveals the moment the medical team knew something more serious was happening with Nikki.
- 6 Standout Quotes
- 7 (01:00) “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.” - Robert Robertson
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Hey Dateline fans! As a bonus for you, we’re sharing a special preview clip of The Last Appeal, an all-new original podcast series from Dateline and Lester Holt.
In this series, Lester Holt takes listeners inside the urgent case of Robert Roberson, a Texas father set to be executed on October 16th for the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter. Lester is on the ground in Texas, where he examines the evidence against Roberson and talks to the people closest to the case, including the lead detective, who now believes he helped put an innocent man behind bars. Lester’s exclusive interviews reveal critical information the jury never heard. This series will confront listeners with questions about justice and truth, and perhaps the most haunting question of all: Is an innocent man about to be put to death?
To start listening, just search “The Last Appeal”. And remember to follow for new episodes releasing each day this week. For ad-free listening, subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or DatelinePremium.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
More from this podcast
Dateline: Missing In America →