(Texas Scorecard) – More than 20 years after the death of two-year-old Nikki Curtis, her family says the push to portray her killer as innocent ignores the truth—and the victim.
Nikki’s father, Robert Roberson, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death in 2003. His execution is scheduled for next week, following years of appeals and efforts from activists claiming he was wrongfully convicted under “junk science.”
Nikki’s half-brother, Matthew Bowman, says those efforts have forgotten who the real victim is.
“It’s time for us to speak. Everybody’s forgotten what this case is about,” Bowman told Texas Scorecard. “This is about a two-year-old baby that lost her life. Not about a grown man that has been in and out of prison his entire life.”
Bowman says the family has lived with the pain for decades, remembering the sister he grew up with.
“We built a fireplace that’s out there in front of his house. We built a smoke room over there on the side of the house. Mine and her footprints are right there in it. When she was two years old, that’s when we did the footprints,” he recalled. “Every day of my life, been a memory of her.”
He points to evidence from the trial that he says cannot be ignored.
“Pictures of my sister on a machine with his face handprint across her face or the bruise that’s on the back of her head right there in the pictures that we have right here in my house right now,” he said. “He showed up with her in a diaper … with blood coming out her nose.”
Bowman says he and his family aren’t asking for attention—just that people examine the facts.
“All we ask is people look at the autopsy. We’re not trying to run around in a big game. We want them to look at the autopsy. Look at it, see what you feel.”
State Rep. Mitch Little (R–Lewisville), who has reviewed the full trial record, says the evidence is overwhelming.
“There was harmony across all of the witnesses that testified in the trial. There was clear indications of physical abuse, bruising, mushiness, bogginess on the back of Nikki’s scalp,” said Little. “The autopsy was signed off on by seven different physicians in Dallas, indicating that she had what’s called an uncle herniation inside of her head. She was abused so badly that her brain actually deviated from where it’s supposed to be inside of her skull.”
He says claims that Roberson was convicted on discredited “shaken baby” science are false.
“This case was tried as a blunt force trauma case,” Little explained. “The autopsy showed nine different categories of blunt force injuries … There is just a panoply of evidence to support Robert Roberson’s conviction.”
For Little, the issue now is carrying out justice.
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” he said. “We have a little girl here who was murdered … In order to have justice, in order to maintain the rule of law, we need to carry out the verdict of a Texas jury.”
Bowman agrees.
“All we’re wanting people to do is look at the autopsy. Remember this is a two-year-old child, not a grown man that we’re talking about,” he said. “If he is innocent, then show me what happened, tell me what happened … If you don’t want to say the truth, then execution it is.”
Roberson’s conviction has been upheld by every court that has reviewed it, including a unanimous ruling by the United States Supreme Court.
For Nikki’s family, the message remains simple: justice delayed is justice denied.
Roberson is scheduled for execution on October 16.