Milwaukee man charged in strangling death of woman placed in dumpster as domestic violence homicides spike
Sophie Carson
A Milwaukee man strangled a mother of two during an argument and put her body in a city garbage cart, prosecutors say.
Robert Lee Daniels, 36, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Jaronna R. Cosby, 35. He appeared in court Thursday and is being held on $150,000 bail.
Cosby's death on July 30 was one of two domestic violence-related homicides on that day in which, according to prosecutors, a man killed his partner then confessed to police. Timothy D. McBride, 42, is also charged with homicide in the shooting death of a 63-year-old woman — his partner of seven years. He walked into the Brown Deer police station to report her death.
Homicides related to domestic violence have skyrocketed in 2020. As of early July, police said about 35% of homicides this year have been the result of violence between family and intimate partners, when normally that number rests in the single digits.
According to a criminal complaint:
Daniels knew Cosby from school and the two used to date. In 2015, Daniels was sentenced to prison in a domestic abuse case and served about four years.
Once Daniels got out of prison, the two began a casual relationship again. Late on July 29, Daniels and Cosby were hanging out and began arguing about their relationship status.
It evolved into a physical fight, Daniels told police, as he tried to keep Cosby in the house. Cosby ran into the street as the argument continued.
Cosby kept trying to get away from Daniels, he told police. They reached a field near North Division High School, and Daniels told police that Cosby bit him. He punched her face several times "to get her to let go," then he began strangling her.
Daniels stopped strangling her once she became lifeless, then he looked around for a place to put her body and found a dumpster in an alley on North 11th Street near the high school. Daniels then placed several discarded items he found in a vacant lot on top of her to hide her body from others.
The next day, Daniels received calls from Cosby's family asking where she was, but he told them he did not know. Later in the day, her mother filed a missing persons report for Cosby.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 1, Daniels walked into the District 2 police station and told officers where to find Cosby's body. He said he hadn't been able to sleep since her death and that he felt bad because he knew Cosby left behind two children.
Daniels in 2015 pleaded guilty to first-degree recklessly endangering safety, strangulation and suffocation and substantial battery with the intent to cause bodily harm, all with domestic abuse modifiers. A charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide was dismissed but read into the record.
If Daniels is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in this case, he faces life in prison.
Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.