West Allis man charged in opioid death of his 1-year-old daughter

Bruce Vielmetti | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A West Allis man was charged Friday in the death of his 1-year-old daughter after a neighbor informed police the child had likely ingested painkillers the father lost in the house.

Robert J. Gibson, 25, faces one count of chronic neglect of a child, causing death, which carries a maximum 40-year prison term upon conviction.

According to the criminal complaint:

Gibson and the child's mother called 911 on July 28 when they discovered Isabella Gibson unresponsive in her crib, with her face in vomit. The child was dead when first responders arrived.

Gibson told police he had checked on the girl hourly after putting her down about 9 p.m. the night before. The girl's mother, Crystal Milleti, returned from work about 2 a.m., checked on the girl then and again about 10 a.m. when she appeared to still be sleeping.

When Gibson checked again around 1 p.m., he saw the vomit.

A neighbor told police that Gibson and Miletti were drug users and that he had heard Gibson arguing with his father recently about missing Percocet pills, which Gibson believed Isabella might have found.

The neighbor also told police Gibson would leave the girl home alone for up to 45 minutes at times while he took Miletti to work.

The neighbor even made recordings of conversations with Gibson and Miletti in the days after Isabella died. In one, Gibson says he fears an autopsy will show the girl had Percocet in her system because he saw her put something in her mouth, he and his father were looking for the missing pills, and that someone would get charged.

"It was my fatherly (expletive) duty," he says on one recording. "I was the one watching her. It was my responsibility."