Utah Basketball Star Yearns For Normalcy Jessie’s Dying Daughter, Own Problems, Creating Havoc

His newborn daughter was dying.

She lay motionless, attached to machines and tubes 600 miles away, and Brandon Jessie yearned to be with her. But he couldn’t. Not until a judge said so.

Jessie, a star senior guard at the University of Utah, awaited sentencing here in July on shoplifting charges as his child struggled to survive in an Orange County, Calif., hospital. How he reached that point, Jessie still isn’t sure.

He never experienced anything as traumatic. Not growing up the youngest son of former Los Angeles Rams wide receiver, Ron Jessie. Not as a teen-ager, becoming one of Orange County’s biggest prep stars.

These should be the best days of Jessie’s life. Heading into his final college season, he is considered among the top shooting guards by National Basketball Association scouts. But Jessie has many troubles.

The NCAA suspended Jessie for the Utes’ first seven games because of his relationship with sports agent Robert Troy Caron, a friend from Jessie’s years at Ventura College. He and Caron are defendants in a lawsuit, he feels tainted by the shoplifting incident and his daughter’s fight for her life has left him emotionally drained and physically unprepared for his pivotal stretch run before the NBA draft.

“It’s been real hard,” Jessie said. “Everything that’s happened … it’s taken my mental drive away. It’s taken me a while to get to where I was (last season), but I’m about there. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying. Like I said, it’s just real hard.”

Kiana Beau Jessie was born June 21 in Newport Beach, Calif. She has had to fight for almost every minute since.

The only child of Jessie and his girlfriend of five years, Harper Maycock, Kiana was born with Down’s syndrome. Shortly after, she contracted a form of meningitis.

Down’s syndrome affects learning and reasoning ability, auditory and visual memory, language skills and muscle tone. The degree to which it affects each person varies.

“That was a shock,” said Maycock, 22. “But we dealt with it and we’ve had a lot of family support.”

Maycock and Kiana moved in with Maycock’s parents in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., after leaving the hospital June 23, and Jessie prepared to return to Utah. But Kiana came down with jaundice and was taken back to the hospital.

There, tests showed Kiana also suffered from a rare form of bacterial meningitis that can be fatal to babies younger than 8 weeks old.

Kiana was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Specialists fought the disease with powerful drugs, but her condition worsened. The disease created abscesses throughout her brain.

“It was horrible,” Jessie said. “Watching this little, innocent baby suffering and not being able to do anything.”

Jessie and Maycock lived at the Orange County Ronald McDonald House in Orange while Kiana underwent treatment. Normally, Jessie would have returned to Utah to work out with his teammates. Instead, his days were spent at the baby’s side and his nights filled with grief.

“You just don’t realize how tough something like this can be until you go through it,” Maycock said. “Even if someone told me a story like this, I could only sympathize so much. It’s a whole different world when you’re going through it.”

Jessie had another problem. He and a teammate were arrested June 3 on suspicion of shoplifting from a Utah department store. Jessie had to return to Utah on July 19 for sentencing on charges of misdemeanor retail theft.

“It was my fault. It was a case of bad judgment and I’m sorry,” Jessie said. “I feel some people are looking at me differently, like ‘Maybe we should re-evaluate this guy.’ I made a mistake, I’ve learned from it and I just want to move on.”

Kiana’s condition deteriorated rapidly in the days preceding Jessie’s court appearance, and doctors were not optimistic. Yet Jessie had no choice. He had to leave.

Jessie received a $250 fine and a year and a half probation. As part of his sentencing agreement, he must speak about being responsible to students at five Salt Lake City-area high schools.

“At that point, I didn’t care what happened to me,” Jessie said. “I just wanted to get back to Kiana.”

Getting there was a battle too.

Jessie originally planned to return the next day and had difficulty changing flights. His flight was delayed 3 hours and Ron’s car, on the way to get Brandon, suffered two flat tires.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Maycock said. “His daughter is dying and he can’t get a flight, and then his dad’s car gets two flats. But I knew Brandon would get back, and I knew she would hold on for her daddy.”

Jessie arrived at the hospital after 11 p.m. and Kiana was still alive. Moreover, she improved.

“She was as close as you get to death,” said Dr. Antonio Arrieta, the hospital’s associate director for pediatric infectious diseases. “She should have died, but kids her age sometimes surprise you. You or I would have died, but kids have an amazing ability to fight.”

She still has. Maycock and Kiana recently moved to Salt Lake City and live in a two-bedroom house with Jessie near campus. Kiana continues to take medication, but is growing. Doctors told her parents the Citrobacter likely caused severe additional brain damage.

“That poor little girl was born with two strikes against her,” Arrieta said. “It’s unpredictable how functional she will be. Those two kids have been through the ringer together.”