Jurors rejected an insanity defense and returned a capital murder verdict after hearing a week of testimony about the death of 17-month-old Hannah Yonko.

GALVESTON, Texas — A Galveston County jury found Channel Jasmine Yonko guilty on March 6 of capital murder in the death of her 17-month-old daughter, Hannah Yonko, sending the Houston mother to prison for life without parole after a weeklong trial over the child’s 2024 death.

The verdict ended a case that drew wide attention in Galveston after police found Hannah gravely injured in the street near the Beachfront Palms Hotel on Oct. 23, 2024. Prosecutors said Yonko stabbed the child the day before, carried her through the hotel in a stroller, then threw her from an upper-floor balcony. Defense lawyers did not dispute that Yonko threw the child, but argued she was legally insane and did not know right from wrong. Jurors rejected that claim in less than an hour of deliberations.

The case began around 9:45 a.m. when Galveston police were called to the 3300 block of 59th Street near Seawall Boulevard for a report of an abandoned child. Officers found Hannah on the pavement, bleeding from a head wound and suffering stab wounds to her back. Paramedics took her to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where she died a short time later. Police said officers could not find a parent or caregiver at the scene. Chief Doug Balli later called it “a horrible crime” and said children should be safe with the people closest to them.

Investigators soon focused on Yonko, who was 30 at the time of her arrest and 31 when she was convicted. Police said an officer found her about a half-mile away, crying and asking for help. According to court records and testimony later summarized by prosecutors, Yonko talked about her daughter and suggested the child might be sick. At the police station, officers also spoke with Yonko’s sister, who said the women and Hannah had been staying in Galveston and were in the process of checking out of the hotel that morning. The sister said she briefly left Yonko and the child, then met up with Yonko again while Yonko was pushing a stroller. She assumed Hannah was inside but did not see her. When the sister said she planned to return to the hotel, Yonko kept telling her not to go back.

At trial, prosecutors built the case around video, physical evidence and witness testimony. The Galveston County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said jurors saw surveillance video of Yonko pushing Hannah in a stroller through several floors of the hotel before taking an elevator to the top floor. Prosecutors said the video then showed Yonko lifting the child out, wrapping her in two blankets and throwing her over the edge. Video from another angle showed Hannah falling four stories to the pavement, according to the state’s summary of the evidence. Jurors also heard testimony from a court-appointed psychiatrist that Yonko admitted stabbing Hannah three times in the back at a nearby condo the day before. One wound fractured a rib, prosecutors said.

Other evidence gave the jury a longer view of the final hours before Hannah’s death. Prosecutors said Yonko had traveled to Galveston with her sister, her sister’s friend and Hannah, and that the group had been in the city about a week before the killing. After a disagreement with the friend, Yonko and her sister moved to the Beachfront Palms Hotel. Jurors were shown photos of a bloody pillow and towel recovered from Yonko’s hotel room, prosecutors said, and the state also told jurors that safety features had been removed from Hannah’s car seat. The defense argued those facts did not answer the central legal question of Yonko’s mental state. Prosecutors said they did, especially when combined with her actions after the child was thrown.

That dispute shaped the final stage of the trial. Yonko’s lawyer conceded she threw Hannah over the balcony but said she was not in her right mind and met the legal standard for insanity. Prosecutors answered with surveillance footage, text messages, witness accounts and expert testimony that they said showed planning, concealment and flight. The district attorney’s office said jurors saw evidence that Yonko fled the scene, hid evidence and tried to call an Uber within four minutes of the killing. Prosecutor Casey Kirst said in closing that the one person who was supposed to love Hannah without condition instead took her life. Under Texas law, the capital murder conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life without parole because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

The jury gave Judge Patricia Grady their verdictin the 212th Judicial District Court. The jury deliberated less than one hour before returning the guilty verdict and automatic sentence. As the case moved toward trial, earlier court proceedings had included questions about Yonko’s mental condition and competency, but the March verdict resolved the criminal case in the trial court by rejecting her insanity defense. The next formal step, if pursued, would come through the appeals process rather than another sentencing hearing.

Author note: Last updated 2026-04-02.