Mom’s New Man Drugs + SAs Toddler to Death and Gets Prison Justice
Josephina Katherine Cunningham was born on July 25th, 2019 at St. Peter’s Memorial Hospital in Albany, New York to parents Lakeisha Stewart and Joseph Cunningham. Everybody called her Josie. She had three brothers, James, Conway, and Jaequan. According to Jaequan, in the weeks before she arrived, their mother painted the nursery walls pale pink and filled the room with stuffed toys.
His father put furniture together and read up on how to take care of a baby. They all talked about names, about which pediatrician in town was the best, and about throwing her a party when she came home. The labor was hard. Lakeisha had to be rushed to the hospital and the family waited for 3 days.
Jaequan stayed at the hospital the whole time telling stories and playing cards. Every time a nurse walked past, they held their breath. On the third day, a text came through. She is here. Josie’s blood sugar was low and she was shaky, so she was taken straight to the intensive care unit. Jaequan remembered watching her through the ICU window with monitors and tubes attached to her.
She spent nearly 3 weeks in the ICU. During that stay, doctors found a heart murmur which meant she was going to need a cardiologist. According to Jaequan, she was born with a hole in her heart. She defied the odds when my prayers were answered and the hole miraculously healed. Josie’s aunt Dina drove Lakeisha home from the hospital.
Jaequan had left the house a mess and by his own account, his mother was angry about it when she walked through the door. The three of them cleaned it up while Josie was asleep in her new car seat. By 10 months old, Josie was crawling and she could say yes and no. She was still on formula and wouldn’t go anywhere without her pacifier and more often than not, she fell asleep with it still in her mouth.
She enjoyed playing peekaboo, splashing in her baby bath, and clapping her hands when something delighted her. Josie wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. According to Jai’Quan, she talked about it all the time. Jai’Quan described his sister as bright, bubbly, and kind. The two of them read children’s books together.
Family and friends described her as happy, energetic, and fun-loving. When the family came over, everyone wanted to hold her. Their cousin Josiah was a teenager at the time who normally kept to himself, but the moment he had Josie in his arms, he went completely gentle with her. By the time she was 3, Josie was going to Victory Day Care in Albany, and Jai’Quan applied for a job there.
He wrote about the day she saw him there, saying, “When she saw me there, she exclaimed, ‘That’s my brother.’ A moment I will never forget.” In his words, “She would often call me on our mother’s phone, greet me with, ‘Hi, brother.’ And ask what I was doing. Whenever I visited, she would run to hug me, and before I left, she’d kiss my cheek and say, ‘Bye-bye, brother.
‘ These moments remain deeply meaningful to me.” >> Robert J. Fisher, Jr. was born on December 18th, 1989. He was raised in Guilderland, New York, and by 2023, he was living in Rensselaer. In 1998, his father died. Robert Fisher, Sr. was killed in a tractor accident while he was working at Altamont Orchards.
That left his mother, Alice Fisher, a widow with six children. Robert was about 8 years old at that time. Alice kept up with the mortgage and the water and sewer payments until 2004, but by 2007, the family owed over $6,000, and their water was shut off. That same year, they lost their house. They moved into an apartment owned by Helderberg Safe Haven, a local not-for-profit.
It was while they were living there that Robert was arrested for the first time. According to the Altamont Enterprise, it was for two instances of menacing behavior. 2007 Guilderland police arrested him for fourth-degree criminal mischief, second-degree criminal contempt, and second-degree harassment. All three were misdemeanors.
By 2009, he was arrested that year for petty larceny and attempted petty larceny after stealing $372 in cash from a man who had paid him for intimate relations. He had 3 years of probation for that. By December of 2011, Robert was homeless. That month, Guilderland police traced a set of stolen credit cards back to him.
Investigator Thomas Funk said Robert admitted to at least two vehicle burglaries in the Westmere area. He had been going into unlocked cars, garages, and houses taking anything valuable that he could find. He appeared in front of Justice John Bailey and was charged with two counts of second-degree burglary.
He was held in the Albany County jail and police said more charges were expected. But after that, we lose track of him. We could not find anything about Robert between that arrest in 2011 and the summer of 2023. News 10 reported in July of 2024 that he had a prior violent history without ever explaining what exactly it was.
And we tried to find his rap sheet, and for whatever reason, it was not available. Robert was introduced to Lakeisha Stewart by a neighbor. Some reports claim that he was simply a friend of the family. By the first week of July of 2023, he and Lakeisha were in a relationship. Jaquan met him and immediately did not like him.
According to Jaquan, “Something felt a little off inside when I first met him. It was a little off. I just felt something in my gut. He went on to say, “It was like my mother was hypnotized. She was too deep in love with him. It was actually kind of strange.” On Thursday, July 6th, 2023, Jaquan stopped by his mother’s house located in Rensselaer to pick up his keys.
That would be the last time that he saw Josie alive. According to Jaquan, Robert had been drinking heavily that day and his eyes were bloodshot. Lakeisha left for Walmart with two friends named Joyce and Betty and was gone for about two hours. Josie stayed at the house with Robert. When she got back, Josie was asleep and looked fine to her.
Lakeisha was worn out, so she went to bed. Later that night, she came out and found Robert on the couch with no clothes on going through her phone. Court documents later place it between 8:00 that night and 7:20 the following morning. Here is what Robert admitted to and what Assistant District Attorney Antonia Edwards laid out in court.
According to ADA Edwards, the defendant took the medication prescribed to Lakeisha, crushed it up, and put it in a cup for Josie to drink. He drugged her, went into her bedroom, and hurt her. He did all of this while she was alive and awake. We only know that now because of the autopsy results. Robert tried to clean up the crime scene.
He used Clorox wipes on Josie’s body. According to Jaquan, he also swept, mopped, and used a large amount of bleach through the house. Next morning, Lakeisha went in to wake Josie for daycare, but she didn’t respond. Her hands and her feet and her lips had gone blue. There was a bleach on her body and she appeared to be foaming at the mouth.
Lakeisha called 911. Detective Sergeant Michael Dessoe was among the first on the scene along with Officer Katherine Hanigan, Sergeant Michael Hughes, and Officer Trey McCoy. Josie was on her back with her hands crossed over her. According to Police Chief Warren Van Meglieti, when our responders showed up to the scene and they made contact with Josephina, 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.
>> Josie was taken to Albany Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. She was less than 3 weeks shy of her fourth birthday. Jai’Quan was on his way to work at Spirit Halloween when his aunt Dina called him. She asked him if he had spoken to his mother and then said, “Did she tell you that Josie died?” Jai’Quan ordered a lift to his mother’s house.
When he got there, his cousin was on his knees outside. Police cars were all around the house and yellow tape blocked the door. His mother was in the car with her friend Joyce. He asked where Robert was and his mother told him that he was down at the station. He tried to interfere with the investigation and officers had taken him in.
Jai’Quan went to Albany Medical Center with his aunt and uncle. Detective Sergeant Desso met them there and offered his condolences. Captain Robert Appleton of the New York State Police walked them through what was being done and told them there was a full investigation going on. Captain Appleton drove Laquisha and Jai’Quan to the State Police Headquarters in Latham where they were both interviewed for hours.
His aunt and uncle picked them up afterward and that evening, Child Protective Services met with Laquisha. The next day, Captain Appleton called with an update and met with Laquisha to explain what investigators had found. Jai’Quan’s aunt called him afterward and told him the investigation had found that Josie died as a result of SA. Robert was arrested that same day.
>> On August 2nd, 2023, Robert was indicted on two counts, second-degree murder and first-degree essay. The indictment said he essayed Josie somewhere in that window on the night of July 6th into the morning of the 7th and that he caused her death by doing it. Before that indictment, he had been facing charges of aggravated essay, assault, and endangering the welfare of a child.
He pled not guilty and was to be represented by public defender Arthur Frost. For Na’Jai Quan, the courtroom was packed. Family, friends, police officers, and firefighters. A lot of them were visibly shocked when the not guilty plea was entered and it set off arguments among friends and family. Outside the courtroom, Detective Sergeant Desso and Captain Appleton spoke to the media.
Robert was held for roughly a year in protective custody. His trial was scheduled for July 31st, 2024. Three weeks before it was due to start on July 9th, he pled guilty instead. ADA Edwards explained the terms saying, “Full parameters of the plea included a plea to the entire indictment. So, both counts, murder in the second degree and in the first degree.
He will receive, in exchange for that, a sentence of 20 years to life.” She said that negotiating a plea in a case like this is normal, but the brutality was not and Robert gave up details that matched the evidence. Na’Jai not want to see a plea. He wanted a trial saying that, and I quote, “I wanted them to go into details of what really happened that night.
I want them to go really into detail. I want some good straight details because that could open up a lot of stuff. Trials like this, you know, attract national attention. This may open up some laws.” District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly saw it differently saying, “He’s getting the harshest [snorts] punishment possible. 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. Sentencing was first set for August 6th. It happened on September 10th, 2024, in front of Judge Deborah J. Young. New details came out that morning.
Some of what came out was too graphic to report. It literally has not been reported. The District Attorney’s office read a statement on behalf of the family. ADA Edwards said, “Hours before her murder, she was seen on video footage at her daycare running around in the playground, smiling and laughing with her peers, doing what children should be doing.
This is how her family, friends, and the community should remember Josie, a carefree, happy child.” ADA Edwards also spoke about the photographs from that morning. She said, “Seeing the pictures of Josie’s face after what the defendant did to her was mortifying. Those images will be ingrained into the minds forever for those who saw them.” >> Prosecutors say the community should know what Robert Fisher did last year when he killed 3-year-old Josephine Cunningham.
>> are just awful, and new at 6:00, Kumi Tucker spoke with a little girl’s brother, only on 13. She joins us live right now from Troy. Kumi, good evening to you. Good evening, Sabrina and Mark. And here at the Rensselaer County Courthouse, it was very difficult to sit in this courtroom today and listen to these horrifying details, and we want to warn you the details are very upsetting.
And many first responders were here. They packed the courtroom today in honor of that little girl. Josephine Cunningham had a sweet smile. She was just 3 years old when her life was taken from her in a horrifying attack. Robert Fisher admitted to raping and killing Josie in her home on Broadway in Rensselaer in July 2023.
>> You are a threat to society and you’ve shown no remorse for what you did to Josie. >> He was a friend of her mother. He drugged her, went into her bedroom, and raped her while she was alive and awake. >> And these actions killed her. Her body went through such a traumatic response. Her body shut down because it could not sustain the trauma.
>> He tried to cover it up, scrubbing her face so hard with Clorox wipes he burned the pigment off her face. He even put Clorox wipes inside her. >> A deeper look at the house yielded that there was bloody baby shark sheets in Josie’s room. The defendant’s bloody underwear. Countless bloody towels. >> He said almost nothing in court.
>> I want everybody to know what Mr. Fischer did on that night and um when our initial responders showed up to the scene and they made contact with Josefina, uh they described her as being laid in bed on her back with her hands folded across her torso as if she was staged. >> But the significant bruising on her hips, inner thighs, and buttocks told a different story.
Fischer was sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars. >> We felt the plea was necessary because we needed to know what happened and in order to um have Mr. Fischer allocute we offered him 20 to life. >> Josie’s brother says this case deserves the death penalty. >> People that you know that are innocent and and getting killed like this and murdered like this they can get death penalty.
You know people that could be destroyed can get death penalty. >> And the official cause of death was homicidal violence during a sexual assault with acute hemorrhage and lacerations plus acute intoxication from the drugs and prosecutors and police want people to know exactly what Robert Fischer did and to remember that, and also to remember little Josie.
>> Robert kept his head down for the entire hearing and chose not to speak. Judge Young sentenced him to 20 years to life, telling him, “You are a threat to society, and you show no remorse for what you did to Josie. It is my duty to impose the sentence that reflects the seriousness of your actions and protects society from the harm you demonstrated yourself are capable of inflicting.
” Chief Amiglietti, whose department had investigated the case, called Robert a monster. He said, “It is my sincere hope that Robert Fisher never gets the opportunity to take a peaceful breath on this earth for the damage he inflicted on so many people, including Josefina, to a minimum be in agony for the rest of his life.
” And then the District Attorney’s office did something that has never been followed up on publicly. They urged the community to think back on any interactions they may have had with Robert Fisher because he may have been involved in other crimes. Robert entered custody of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision on September 23rd, 2024, and was sent to the Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County.
His parole eligibility date was July 3rd, 2043. He served 29 days. >> On October 22nd, 2024 at 1:27 a.m., a corrections officer found Robert unresponsive on his bed, leaning against the wall. 1:30, the cell door was opened and four officers went in. A minute later, another officer and a prison nurse arrived. And then the report goes dark.
There are seven entries logged between 1:34 and 1:49. Every single one of them is redacted. At 1:52, an ambulance crew arrived and took over his care. The entry at 1:54 is redacted. At 1:55 an emergency room doctor pronounced him dead over EMS radio. On the document itself, the cause of death was given as unknown despite no autopsy being completed.
About an hour later, 2:52 that same morning, a second man died at Elmira. William Brand had arrived at the facility 12 days earlier on October 10th. He was serving 10 years for first-degree CSA. When the reporters asked about William, they got an answer. State police said he died of a medical event. They’ve never said, as of the date of this recording, what Robert had died from.
Two Albany newsrooms went after the story, News Channel 13 and CBS 6. CBS 6 asked the Chemung County Health Department for the autopsy reports within days of Robert’s death. The public health director wrote back, “The Chemung County Health Department does administer the coroner’s program for the county.
We do not comment on cases, nor do we release autopsy reports.” News Channel 13 filed a Freedom of Information Law request with Chemung County on January 25th, 2025. Two months later, March 26th, the county sent the form back with the boxes checked, denied. The reason given was that it was exempt by other statute. On March 7th, 2025, News Channel 13 filed with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision asking for the autopsy report and for any correspondence between the department and Elmira about Robert’s death.
The department asked for an extension on April 2nd. They asked again on May 16th. Again on July 7th. On September 4th, they asked a fourth time. On October 3rd, 2025, nearly 7 months after the request was made and almost a year after Robert had died, the department produced four pages. The pages were dated October 23rd, 2024, the day after he died.
Sections were blacked out. What the report said was that Robert was found unresponsive, redacted, on his bed leaning against the wall. The department pointed to four things: the public officers law, rules that keep medical records private inside a correctional facility, the federal health privacy law most people know as HIPAA, and a separate statute covering the privacy of patients treated for substance use.
The blacked out sections covered a lot. Anything that identified him personally, medications he may have been taking, whatever history he had with substances in general, and every medical visit in his final 2 weeks. We also do not know if he had a cellmate at the time. I know some people are probably wondering, well, did his cellmate do it? The request for emails was denied outright.
The department said it has no mechanism for the practical search of all departmental electronic communications by keyword, and cited a court decision holding that it is not required to make Herculean efforts to answer a records request. So much for the Freedom of Information Act. The department has a policy on this.
If a death doesn’t look natural, and it doesn’t match a condition they already knew he had, the state police has to investigate. So does the department’s own Office of Special Investigations, and every death in a state facility gets reviewed by the State Commission of Corrections on top of that. Chief Famiglietti spoke to reporters after his death.
We didn’t not expect it. It’s a horrific crime. Everyone knows what he did. We didn’t expect him to have a smooth time in prison. He also put out a written statement on behalf of his department, which read, “On behalf of the Rensselaer Police Department, I would like to announce the death of admitted child murderer pissed and predator Robert Fisher.
I already see comments online expressing joy and relief from the news of his death. Being careful not to express my personal beliefs on a professional platform, I will say that I would find it impossible to compose a rational articulate argument in opposition of those expressing relief. It appears that justice was ultimately served by a power much greater.
Detective Sergeant Dessio, who had been one of the first officers through the door that morning, spoke to Josie’s father after the news broke. He said, “It was tough because there’s nothing that will bring his daughter back. Although he’s no longer paying for this person to be imprisoned, to pay for his meals and lodging, it’s not going to bring his daughter back.
He’s still without his daughter. It’s still bringing it up over and over again.” Jaiquan didn’t stop after Robert made his guilty plea, and he certainly didn’t stop after Robert had died. Before the sentencing, what he wanted was for New York to bring back the death penalty. He had called it the Josie Act. After Robert died, he changed the target.
He told reporters, “I still plan on keeping Josephine’s memory alive. Instead of trying to reinstate the NYS death penalty, I am going to try to get it as a federal law in all 50 states.” He said that it would give families of victims of heinous crimes the choice to have the convicted person put to death. He also wrote a book about his sister and produced a short documentary.
He was 22 at the time, and he had just started his first year at the State University of New York Schenectady. He explained what the work was doing for him. He said, “How’s this process helping? It’s helping me grieve without crying, without thinking about it. Trying to think of something positive.” >> Josie’s funeral was held on Friday, July 21st, 2023 at 4:00 in the afternoon at W.J. Lyons Jr.
Funeral Home on Washington Avenue in Rensselaer. Family and friends were invited to come in the hour before the service. We weren’t able to find where Josie was buried. Her Find a Grave memorial lists the burial details as unknown. There are seven photographs on the page and 47 flowers have been left on it. Jaiquawn has written a lot about his sister since July of 2023.
A book, a documentary, a first-person essay, an interview after interview. He wrote that from the moment she came into the world, he knew she was extraordinary. He felt she was the only one who understood him. And every time she hugged him, it was like power rushing through his body. And he wrote down what she said to him every time he left the house.
Bye-bye, brother.
