AURORA — The mother of two children who died in an apartment fire Sunday appeared in court Friday.
Danielle Brockman’s public defender put her arm around the 23-year-old Brockman during her appearance Friday morning. She waived her right to hear the two charges of child abuse against her.
Brockman was visibly shaken and, at times, sobbing. Her bail was set at $500,000, and she remained in jail.
Brockman’s next court date is set for Thursday.
“No exaggeration, about 99 percent of the time she was just sobbing,” said Mike Ramirez, the father of the two children. “Over and over, she would just say, ‘It’s my fault, it’s my fault, it’s my fault.’ “
There is a protection order against Brockman, barring her from harassing witnesses or having contact with people younger than 18.
Funeral services for 1-year-old Alivia and 3-year-old Timothy “T.J.” Ramirez were held Friday morning in Longmont.
Mike Ramirez was in Georgia at the time of the fatal fire.
“I’m still numb from the whole incident,” he said. “I just buried my children.”
According to Aurora police, Brockman had left her two children alone in the house in the 12600 block of East 13th Avenue when the fire started Sunday morning.
Firefighters were delayed in rescuing the children because of security bars on the windows.
After the funeral, Ramirez shared his last moments with his son and daughter.
“I talked to both of them, like kind of like they were still there. I told T.J., ‘Watch your little sister. Take care of your sister.’ And I told Alivia, ‘Please don’t let T.J. get into too much trouble,’ ” he said.
“At the funeral, we released some balloons. Some blue ones and some pink ones. And for some reason, the blue ones just took off, and I said, ‘See, there goes T.J., he’s taking off already and his little sister is chasing after him.’ “
