John Jefferson
Left inset: Channel Yonko. Right inset: Hannah Yonko (Galveston Police Department). Background: Beachfront Palms Hotel in Galveston, Texas (Google Maps).
A mother is accused of murder after she dropped her 17-month-old daughter from the third story of a Texas hotel.
Galveston police Chief Doug Balli told reporters that his officers responded to an abandoned toddler call around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday near the Beachfront Palms Hotel. When they arrived they found the girl, later identified as Hannah Yonko, wrapped in a blanket and clinging to life after suffering from trauma from a fall, as well as three puncture wounds on her back, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. Paramedics rushed her to a hospital trauma center, but doctors were unable to save the girl and they pronounced her dead a short time later.
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Meanwhile, cops put out a description of the woman who witnesses said was with Hannah. That woman was later identified as the little girl’s mother, 30-year-old Channel Jasmine Yonko, a probable cause arrest affidavit said. An officer found her about a half-mile away. She was crying and asked the officer for help. Yonko allegedly started talking about her daughter and said she may be “sick,” cops wrote. Officers took Yonko to the police station for an interview. Her sister also showed up to the station.
Yonko refused to give detectives her name and requested a lawyer, according to cops. Her sister spoke with police and said she, Yonko and Hannah had been staying at the Beachfront Palms Hotel. On the morning in question, they were in the process of checking out of the hotel when the sister left Yonko and Hannah to go speak to her fiance at The Victorian hotel nearby on Seawall Boulevard.
A little while later, Yonko, who was walking with a stroller, met up with her sister at The Victorian. The sister assumed Hannah was in the stroller, but did not actually see her. When the sister said she was going back to Beachfront Palms to pack up her stuff, Yonko allegedly kept telling her “don’t go back to the hotel.”
Beachfront Palms hotel staff told cops that the trio were staying in room 217. Outside the hotel, detectives found a trash bag in a bin that had a key card for room 217, a “skinning” knife with a black handle along with toys, snacks and diapers, the affidavit said. Investigators also recovered surveillance video that captured Hannah’s fall, according to the affidavit. Video also showed Yonko pushing her daughter, still alive, in her stroller at an earlier time.
Cops arrested Yonko on a capital murder charge. She’s being held at the Galveston County Jail without bond.
“This is a horrible crime. All children deserve to feel safe when around loved ones, especially with their own mother,” Balli said in a statement. “The Galveston Police Department is committed to bringing justice for Hannah and ensuring the safety of all children in our community.”
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