Hello, I'm Lester Holt from Dateline NBC.
Here's a special preview of my new podcast, The Last Appeal.
Good morning to you, Mr. Holt.
How are you?
I'm blessed, I'm blessed.
I'm sitting in a plastic chair inside the notorious Polunsky unit in West Livingston, Texas death row.
Across from me, a man named Robert Robertson.
We got a lot to talk about.
He's a big guy, more than six feet, wearing a white prison jumpsuit.
We're so close, I could shake his hand, if not for the pain of plexiglass between us.
On October 16th, Robert is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
How are you preparing for your own death, your own execution?
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.
In 2003, a jury convicted Robert of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.
Prosecutors say the evidence is overwhelming.
Mr. Roberson took the life of his daughter.
And I just remember that cold face, and I looked, and that poor little girl was just, she was dead.
Some in Nikki's family believe Robert's date with death is long overdue.
This is his third execution date.
It's time.
There's no more waiting.
But a growing army is rallying behind Robert.
They believe he is innocent.
I almost cannot believe what I'm reading.
They argue his case urgently needs another look now, before it's too late.
Let's take all this evidence, go back to the courtroom, go back to a jury, and let them decide.
As the days tick down to Robert's execution, I set off to East Texas.
Oh, I've never seen a picture of her like this.
Beautiful girl.
I'm on the hunt for answers about what happened to Nikki all those years ago, learning critical information the jury never got to hear.
We're just fact-checking on a document that was discovered here.
Finding details that have never been reported.
Have you done interviews on this topic before?
No, this was the very first.
Is the state about to put an innocent man to death?
I am terrified that that is what we are racing towards.
It's September 2025, one month before Robert Robertson is scheduled to be executed.
I'm in Palestine, Texas, once a busy railroad hub.
Today, downtown looks more like an empty movie set.
It's the town where two-year-old Nikki was taken to the hospital.
On the morning of January 31st, 2002, a man walked in pushing a woman in a wheelchair.
Resting on her lap was Nikki.
She was unconscious, barely breathing.
A nurse named Kelly Garganis was the first to see Nikki that morning.
Has she talked before anybody?
No.
I'm with producer Dan Slepian.
We wanted to speak with Kelly, so we stopped by her house.
Hello?
Hello, hi.
Hi.
Are you Kelly?
Uh-huh.
Hi, I'm Lester Holt from NBC News.
Yes, sir.
One of my colleagues here.
Hi, guys.
We're trying to contact you about a story we're working on around the Robert Robertson case.
Kelly is wearing pink scrubs.
She invites us in and agrees to talk to me about that morning 23 years ago.
So you've been working all day?
Yes, sir.
At the same hospital?
At the same hospital.
Been there 28 years.
Back when all this was happening, you were an ER nurse?
Yes, sir.
Is the pediatric part of that job emotionally hard?
Can be, yes.
Can be very emotionally.
And, like, Nikki, the little girl, to this day, I'll never forget that day.
A gentleman walks through the door not the ambulance bay but the main door and there was a lady that was in a wheelchair and I could tell she was in a hospital gown.
And there was something on her lap and I saw that there was a jacket.
So I took the jacket off and there was a baby in her lap.
We went in the trauma room when we started the head-to-toe assessment and we were like something else is going on here.
Thank you for listening.
Search for The Last Appeal to hear the full episode now.
