Mom’s New Man Drugs + SAs Toddler to Death and Gets Prison Justice

On July 25th, 2019, Josephina Katherine Cunningham was born into the world at St. Peter’s Memorial Hospital in Albany, New York. Her proud parents, Lakesha Stewart and Joseph Cunningham, looked down at their newborn daughter with pure affection and quickly began calling her by the name that would forever stick: Josie.

Josie was welcomed into a bustling home with three older brothers—James, Conway, and Jaquan—all eager to step into their roles as protectors and playmates. In the anticipation-filled weeks leading up to her arrival, their mother had carefully painted the nursery walls in a gentle, pale pink, filling every available shelf with soft, stuffed toys.

Her father spent late evenings piecing together baby furniture, reading through manuals, and diligently researching how to care for a infant girl. The family spent long dinners deliberating names, searching for the best pediatrician in town, and making grand plans to throw a celebratory welcome-home party for the tiny new addition to their lives.

Labor proved long and excruciating for Lakesha, culminating in a rushed emergency room visit that left the family anxiously waiting in the hospital lobby for three exhausting days. Jaquan stayed right by his mother’s side through the entire ordeal, keeping spirits up by playing cards and telling stories to pass the heavy hours.

Every single time a nurse walked past the waiting room doors, the entire family held their collective breath, waiting for news. On the third day, a simple text message finally flashed across a screen: “She is here.”

The joy was immediately tempered by concern when doctors discovered that baby Josie’s blood sugar was dangerously low and her little body was visibly shaky. Medical staff moved her directly to the neonatal intensive care unit to stabilize her condition.

Jaquan remembered standing quietly outside the glass window of the ICU, watching his tiny sister surrounded by humming monitors and attached to delicate tubes. She remained under strict medical supervision in the unit for nearly three full weeks.

During that stressful hospital stay, doctors detected a distinct heart murmur, delivering the distressing news that the baby would require specialized long-term care from a pediatric cardiologist. Further testing confirmed that Josie had been born with a structural hole in her heart.

Against the overwhelming medical odds, Jaquan believed his fervent prayers were answered when subsequent scans revealed that the hole had miraculously healed on its own. Relief washed over the family as she was finally cleared to leave the hospital.

Josie’s aunt Dena drove Lakesha and the newborn back home, where a minor domestic situation awaited them. Jaquan had inadvertently left the house in a chaotic mess during the hectic days spent at the hospital, an oversight that drawn his mother’s sharp anger the moment she crossed the threshold.

Without hesitation, the family banded together to scrub and organize the house, working in hushed tones while Josie slept soundly nearby in her brand-new car seat.

By the time she reached ten months old, Josie’s vibrant personality began to shine brilliantly through her rapid developmental milestones. She was actively crawling across the floors and had learned to express her wishes clearly by nodding or saying “yes” and “no.”

Though she remained on formula and refused to go anywhere without her favorite pacifier—often drifting off to sleep with it tucked securely in her mouth—her days were filled with simple delights. She adored playing endless games of peekaboo, splashing in her warm baby bath, and clapping her small hands together whenever something brought her joy.

Even at such a tender age, Josie held a big dream for her future: she wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. According to Jaquan, the little girl brought up the subject constantly, filled with awe at the thought of helping others.

Jaquan affectionately described his younger sister as bright, bubbly, and remarkably kind-hearted, noting that the two of them spent countless hours curled up reading children’s picture books together. Friends and relatives echoed those sentiments, remembering Josie as an exceptionally happy, energetic, and fun-loving child who brought light into every room.

Whenever extended family gathered for celebrations, everyone in attendance competed for the chance to cuddle and hold her. Her cousin Josiah, a quiet teenager who typically kept to himself, transformed completely whenever Josie was placed in his arms, instantly softening into a gentle and attentive playmate.

By the time she celebrated her third birthday, Josie was enrolled at Victory Daycare in Albany, a bright spot in her daily routine. Seeking to stay close to her, Jaquan applied for a position at the exact same facility and was hired to work alongside the staff.

He fondly recalled the unforgettable day she first spotted him in the hallway at work, when she pointed excitedly and shouted to her classmates, “That’s my brother!” It was a moment of pure, unadulterated pride that etched itself permanently into his memory.

Their bond grew even stronger through daily interactions, both at home and from afar. “She would often call me on her mother’s phone, greet me with ‘Hi, brother,’ and ask what I was doing,” Jaquan reflected.

Whenever he came to visit the house, Josie would drop whatever she was doing and run across the room to throw her arms around him. Before he left, she made a point to kiss his cheek and sweetly say, “Bye-bye, brother”—simple gestures that remained deeply meaningful to him.

Parallel to the story of this close-knit family unfolded the troubled life of a man named Robert J. Fischer Jr., born on December 18th, 1989. Fischer was raised in the town of Guilderland, New York, and by the year 2023, he had relocated to nearby Rensselaer.

Tragedy struck Fischer early in life when his father, Robert Fischer Sr., was tragically killed in a severe tractor accident in 1998 while working at Altamont Orchards. The fatal incident left his mother, Alice Fischer, suddenly widowed and tasked with raising six children on her own.

Robert was merely eight years old at the time of his father’s death, an event that marked the beginning of a long period of familial instability and financial struggle. Alice fought to keep up with mortgage payments, water bills, and sewer fees for years, but by 2004, the household finances were collapsing.

By 2007, the family owed over $6,000 in unpaid utility bills, leading the municipality to shut off their water supply entirely. Later that same year, they lost their home to foreclosure and were forced to relocate to an apartment provided by Helderberg Safe Haven, a local non-profit organization.

It was during this period of displacement that Robert Fischer’s interactions with the law began to escalate significantly. According to reports published by the Altamont Enterprise, his initial arrests involved two separate incidents of menacing behavior.

In 2007, Guilderland police arrested Fischer on misdemeanor charges including fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree criminal contempt, and second-degree harassment. His criminal trajectory continued downward over the following two years.

By 2009, he faced arrest once again, this time charged with petty larceny and attempted petty larceny after stealing $372 in cash from a man who had paid him for intimate relations. He received a three-year sentence of probation for the theft.

By December 2011, Fischer had become completely homeless, drifting through local neighborhoods while committing opportunistic crimes to survive. Guilderland police eventually traced a series of stolen credit cards directly back to his possession.

Investigator Thomas Funk noted that Fischer openly admitted to committing at least two vehicle burglaries in the Westmere area during that spree. He had systematically target unlocked cars, detached garages, and unbolted residential doors, taking whatever items of value he could lay his hands on.

Brought before Justice John Bailey, Fischer was formally charged with two felony counts of second-degree burglary and remanded to the Albany County Jail. Although authorities indicated that additional charges were anticipated, public records regarding his whereabouts abruptly ceased following that court appearance.

For over a decade—between his 2011 arrest and the summer of 2023—Fischer effectively dropped off the public radar. Though News 10 would later report in July 2024 that he possessed a prior violent history, specific documentation of his criminal rap sheet during those missing years remained strangely unavailable.

In the early summer of 2023, Fischer was introduced to Lakesha Stewart through a mutual neighbor. While some local news reports initially described him as merely a family friend, he and Lakesha entered into a romantic relationship by the first week of July.

Jaquan met Fischer shortly after he moved into his mother’s sphere and instantly harbored an intense mistrust of the man. “Something felt a little off inside when I first met him,” Jaquan recalled of their initial introduction. “It was a little off. I just felt something in my gut.”

He watched the relationship develop with growing unease, noting how rapidly his mother seemed to drop her guard around the newcomer. “It was like my mother was hypnotized,” Jaquan later observed. “She was too deep in love with him. It was actually kind of strange.”

On Thursday, July 6th, 2023, Jaquan dropped by his mother’s home on Broadway in Rensselaer to retrieve his house keys. He had no way of knowing that this routine errand would mark the very last time he would see his little sister alive.

During that brief visit, Jaquan noticed that Fischer had been drinking heavily throughout the day and that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Shortly after Jaquan left, Lakesha departed the house to go shopping at Walmart with two friends, Joyce and Betty, leaving three-year-old Josie alone in Fischer’s care for roughly two hours.

When Lakesha returned home, Josie appeared to be sleeping peacefully in her bed, showing no immediate signs of distress. Exhausted from the day, Lakesha went to her own bedroom to sleep, unaware of the horror that was unfolding under her roof.

Later that night, Lakesha woke up, walked out into the living room, and was startled to find Fischer sitting on the couch without any clothes on, rifling through her personal cell phone. Court documents later established that the harrowing attack took place in a window between 8:00 PM that evening and 7:20 AM the following morning.

The gruesome details of what transpired were later laid out in court by Assistant District Attorney Antonia Edwards, based on Fischer’s own partial admissions and physical evidence. Fischer had taken prescription medication belonging to Lakesha, crushed the pills into a fine powder, and mixed them into a drink that he forced Josie to consume.

After drugging the toddler, Fischer entered her bedroom and subjected her to a horrific, violent sexual assault while she was still conscious and awake. The full extent of the brutal trauma was only fully realized later through painstaking autopsy results.

Following the assault, Fischer systematically attempted to erase evidence of his crime from the house and the victim. He used Clorox bleach wipes directly on Josie’s delicate skin in an effort to eliminate DNA, while simultaneously sweeping, mopping, and pouring massive quantities of chemical bleach throughout the residence.

The following morning, Lakesha walked into the bedroom to wake Josie for her day at Victory Daycare, only to be met with a nightmare. The child was completely unresponsive; her hands, feet, and lips had turned a terrifying shade of blue, and chemical residue and foam were visible around her mouth.

Panicked, Lakesha dialed 911, prompting an immediate multi-agency emergency response to the Broadway home. Detective Sergeant Michael Desesso was among the first officers to arrive, along with Officer Catherine Hannigan, Sergeant Michael Hughes, and Officer Trey McCoy.

First responders found Josie lying motionless on her back with her hands neatly crossed over her torso. Rensselaer Police Chief Warren Famiglietti later described the unnatural scene encountered by his officers: “They described her as being laid in bed on her back with her arms folded across her torso as if she was staged, as if someone wanted it to seem that she was in a peaceful state.”

Paramedics rushed the little girl to Albany Medical Center, but medical staff were unable to revive her. Less than three weeks shy of her fourth birthday, Josephina Cunningham was officially pronounced dead.

Jaquan was on his way to his job at Spirit Halloween when he received an urgent phone call from his aunt Dena. She asked if he had spoken to his mother that morning, before delivering the devastating news: “Did she tell you that Josie died?”

In a state of utter shock, Jaquan hailed a Lyft ride and rushed straight to his mother’s home on Broadway. Upon arrival, he found a scene of utter chaos; police cruisers surrounded the perimeter, yellow crime scene tape blocked the entrance, and his cousin was kneeling on the front lawn in agony.

His mother was sitting inside a police vehicle with her friend Joyce, overwhelmed with grief. When Jaquan asked where Fischer was, his mother explained that officers had taken him to the police station after he actively tried to interfere with the emergency responders and the ongoing crime scene investigation.

Jaquan immediately traveled to Albany Medical Center to join his aunt and uncle, where Detective Sergeant Desesso met the grieving family to offer his condolences. Captain Robert Appleton of the New York State Police walked them through the initial steps of the investigation, assuring them that a comprehensive homicide inquiry was actively underway.

Captain Appleton personally drove Lakesha and Jaquan to the New York State Police headquarters in Latham, where investigators interviewed both family members for hours to establish a detailed timeline of events.

The following day, Captain Appleton contacted the family with a tragic update, meeting with Lakesha to reveal the preliminary findings of the medical examiner. Jaquan’s aunt called him shortly after to relay the horrifying truth: the investigation had concluded that Josie died as a direct result of severe sexual assault and chemical toxicity.

With the autopsy findings in hand, state police moved swiftly, arresting Robert Fischer that same day and placing him in high-security lockup.

On August 2nd, 2023, a grand jury officially indicted Fischer on two primary felony charges: second-degree murder and first-degree rape. The indictment detailed how Fischer had assaulted Josie during the night of July 6th into the morning of July 7th, directly causing her violent death.

Prior to the formal indictment, he had faced additional preliminary charges, including aggravated sexual abuse, assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. Represented by public defender Arthur Frost, Fischer entered a plea of not guilty at his initial arraignment.

Jaquan remembered the courtroom being packed to capacity with family members, friends, local police officers, and firefighters who had responded to the call. A wave of visible shock and anger swept through the room when the not-guilty plea was delivered, igniting intense arguments outside the courtroom doors.

Following the hearing, Detective Sergeant Desesso and Captain Appleton addressed members of the media, confirming that Fischer would be held in protective custody pending trial. Fischer remained isolated in jail for roughly a year while attorneys prepared for a trial scheduled to begin on July 31st, 2024.

However, on July 9th, 2024—just three weeks before jury selection was set to commence—Fischer abruptly abandoned his defense and agreed to a plea deal. Assistant District Attorney Antonia Edwards outlined the terms of the agreement, stating that Fischer pled guilty to the entire indictment, covering both second-degree murder and first-degree rape.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the prosecution agreed to a sentence of 20 years to life in state prison. ADA Edwards noted that while plea negotiations are common in complex legal cases, the sheer brutality of Fischer’s actions was unprecedented, and his formal allocution required him to admit to details that precisely matched the forensic evidence.

Jaquan was deeply opposed to the plea agreement, strongly preferring that the case proceed to a full public trial. “I wanted them to go into details of what really happened that night,” Jaquan expressed passionately. “I want them to go really into detail. I want some good, straight details because that could open up a lot of stuff… This may open up some laws.”

Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly defended the decision to accept the plea, emphasizing the certainty of the punishment. “He’s getting the harshest punishment possible,” Donnelly stated. “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. 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 formal sentencing hearing was conducted on September 10th, 2024, in front of Judge Deborah J. Young in Rensselaer County Court. During the morning proceedings, prosecutors revealed horrific new details regarding the extent of the crime—details so graphic that news outlets declined to air them publicly.

The district attorney’s office read an emotional statement on behalf of the grieving family. ADA Edwards shared a tragic contrast, revealing that hours before her murder, Josie had been captured on daycare video footage running around the playground, smiling and laughing with her friends. “This is how her family, friends, and the community should remember Josie—a carefree, happy child,” Edwards stated.

Edwards also addressed the terrifying crime scene photos, describing them as mortifying images that would remain permanently burned into the minds of everyone who viewed them. Prosecutors stressed that the public needed to understand the full scope of Fischer’s monstrous actions.

During a live broadcast from outside the courthouse, reporter Kumi Tucker of News Channel 13 described the heavy, somber atmosphere inside the crowded room, which was filled with solemn first responders.

The court heard how Fischer had scrubbed the little girl’s face so violently with Clorox wipes that he burned the pigment off her skin. Investigators searching the Broadway home had recovered bloody Baby Shark bedsheets from Josie’s room, Fischer’s own blood-stained underwear, and dozens of bleach-soaked towels.

Chief Famiglietti reiterated the unsettling nature of the scene, pointing out that while Fischer had tried to stage the child peacefully in her bed, the extensive bruising across her hips, thighs, and body revealed the extreme physical trauma she endured.

The official cause of death was formally recorded as homicidal violence during a sexual assault accompanied by acute internal hemorrhage, severe lacerations, and acute chemical intoxication.

Addressing the court, Judge Young spare no words for the defendant, who sat silently with his head bowed. “You are a threat to society, and you show no remorse for what you did to Josie,” Judge Young declared. “It is my duty to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of your actions and protect society from the harm you demonstrated yourself are capable of inflicting.”

Chief Famiglietti voiced the collective anger of the community, calling Fischer a monster and expressing his hope that the killer would never experience another moment of peace for the rest of his life.

In a curious turn following the sentencing, the district attorney’s office urged the public to report any past interactions with Fischer, hinting that he may have been involved in other unsolved crimes.

On September 23rd, 2024, Fischer was formally transferred into the custody of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and processed into the Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County, with his earliest parole eligibility set for July 3rd, 2043.

His time in the state prison system proved extraordinarily brief. On October 22nd, 2024, after serving just 29 days of his sentence, a corrections officer performing late-night checks found Fischer unresponsive on his cell bed at 1:27 AM.

According to internal logs, officers opened the cell door at 1:30 AM, and four guards entered the space, followed shortly by medical personnel and a facility nurse. However, official documentation surrounding the medical response abruptly went dark, with seven consecutive log entries between 1:34 AM and 1:49 AM completely redacted from public view.

An outside ambulance crew arrived at 1:52 AM to take over emergency care, but at 1:55 AM, an emergency room physician officially pronounced Fischer dead over the EMS radio network. Despite a full autopsy being performed, the official cause of death listed on initial state documents was simply marked as “unknown.”

In a bizarre coincidence, a second inmate died at Elmira Correctional Facility just one hour later at 2:52 AM that same morning. The second deceased individual, William Brand, had arrived at the prison twelve days earlier to serve a ten-year sentence for child sexual abuse; state police quickly declared that Brand had succumbed to an unrelated medical event.

Local news outlets News Channel 13 and CBS 6 immediately launched investigations into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Fischer’s sudden death in custody.

When CBS 6 requested autopsy reports from the Chemung County Health Department, the public health director flatly refused, citing departmental policies against commenting on coroner cases or releasing medical records.

News Channel 13 filed a formal Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request in January 2025, but Chemung County officials rejected the filing two months later, checking boxes indicating the records were completely exempt from disclosure.

Undeterred, reporters filed additional requests with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, seeking medical records and official correspondence regarding the incident.

After repeatedly delaying their response across four separate extensions spanning nearly a year, state authorities finally released a heavily redacted four-page document in October 2025.

The sparse paperwork confirmed only that Fischer was found unresponsive leaning against his cell wall, while blacking out all details regarding his medical history, daily medications, potential substance abuse records, and two weeks of health visits.

The department cited strict privacy statutes—including HIPAA and laws governing substance abuse treatment—to justify the massive redactions, while outright denying requests for staff emails on the grounds that searching electronic communications would require unreasonable effort.

Despite official silence from state investigators, Chief Famiglietti issued a public statement on behalf of his police department regarding the killer’s sudden demise.

“On behalf of the Rensselaer Police Department, I would like to announce the death of admitted child murderer and predator Robert Fischer,” the chief wrote. “I already see comments online expressing joy and relief… It appears that justice was ultimately served by a power much greater.”

Detective Sergeant Desesso reached out to Josie’s father following the news, acknowledging the complex emotions surrounding the unexpected death. While the family would no longer have to fund the killer’s prison stay through their taxes, nothing could ever fill the profound void left by his daughter’s absence.

In the wake of the tragedy, Jaquan channeled his intense grief into active advocacy. Initially campaigning for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York under a proposal he named the “Josie Act,” he later expanded his vision to push for federal legislation applying across all fifty states.

To preserve his sister’s memory, Jaquan authored a moving book, produced a short documentary, and shared his experience through national interviews while pursuing his studies at SUNY Schenectady. “How is this process helping? It’s helping me grieve without crying, without thinking about it, trying to think of something positive,” he explained.

On Friday, July 21st, 2023, family and friends had gathered to say their final goodbyes to Josephina Cunningham during a memorial service at the W.J. Lyons Jr. Funeral Home in Rensselaer.

Though her exact burial location remains undisclosed to the public, her online memorial page stands as a quiet sanctuary, adorned with loving photographs and dozens of digital flowers left by mourning strangers and loved ones alike.

Jaquan continues to write about the irreplaceable bond he shared with his little sister, recalling how her warm hugs felt like raw power rushing through his body.

Above all, he holds tightly to the memory of her bright, innocent voice, forever echoing the affectionate farewell she offered whenever he walked out the door: “Bye-bye, brother.”