I hit baby so he won't be a 'punk,' dad tells cops

The Miami Herald ^ | 4-25-2003 | CAROL MARBIN MILLER AND TERE FIGUERAS

[Cagey]

Victor Demetrius Robinson wanted his 8-month-old son to be a man.

His infant, Kelton Wright, was being fussy: New teeth were coming in and he wouldn't stop crying.

So, according to child welfare reports released on Thursday, Robinson stuffed a sock in the baby's mouth and told him: ``Be quiet. You're a boy. Don't cry.''

Three weeks later, Kelton was crying once more -- still teething, now sick with diarrhea, vomiting and feverish.

That's when Robinson punched the baby in the back, and ``shook him violently.''

Kelton stopped crying. The force of his father's blow knocked him forward and forced all the air from his lungs.

The infant managed to crawl toward his mother, Ciji Wright, 19, before his eyes rolled back and he stopped breathing.

Robinson, who is charged with murder, offered this explanation to police: ``I don't want my shorty to grow up to be a punk.''

Kelton died a day later -- March 4 -- at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

He is one of three boys under the watch of the Department of Children & Families to die since February, a statistic that has spurred a public outcry.

The DCF documents released this week reveal more detail about Kelton's short life and the welfare agency's work in the days leading to his death -- casework labeled as ''indefensible'' by Chelly Schembera, then acting head of the DCF's Miami district, in a March 10 e-mail to DCF Secretary Jerry Regier.

Among the details:

• The child abuse investigator assessed the risk to Kelton as ''low'' after responding to the February incident despite Robinson's history of mental illness and molesting a disabled family member. The investigator dated her assessment Feb. 17, but the records show her supervisor did not review the assessment until after Kelton had died.

• Kelton's case was on the table to be reviewed by a DCF attorney Feb. 25 when the attorney postponed his and one other case because ``she had to leave as it was 5 p.m.''

On Thursday, 364 days after DCF reported to police the disappearance of 5-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson, several state lawmakers gathered in Tallahassee to mourn the death of Kelton and the three other children who have died under DCF care since February -- and call on Gov. Jeb Bush to delay the confirmation of Regier as secretary.

''We should not be wringing our hands over more beaten children, more neglected infants, more tiny graves,'' said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami.

[Cagey]

Just another all too common story.

[Cathryn Crawford]

I know, from very intimate experience, that the Child Protective Services in this country is rotten to the core.

Think U.N. rotten...foundationally flawed from the ground up.

[joesnuffy]

Looks like another job for Jesse....if he's not too busy shakin' down the Fortune 500 that is..
or accusin' Rev Peterson of stealin' the apples he done shook loose from da trees dat is

[Cagey]

You're 100% right. They prove it themselves by making statements like " Kelton's case was on the table to be reviewed by a DCF attorney Feb. 25 when the attorney postponed his and one other case because ``she had to leave as it was 5 p.m.''

How long did they postpone it? I doubt they even took the file out of the folder.

[asformeandformyhouse]

The child abuse investigator assessed the risk to Kelton as ''low'' after responding to the February incident despite Robinson's history of mental illness and molesting a disabled family member.

There's just not enough time for these poor people to do their jobs what with investigating home-schoolers and religious parents who discipline their children and all. /Sarcasm

[PBRSTREETGANG]

``I don't want my shorty to grow up to be a punk.''

He got his wish.

[AppyPappy]

Didn't his own father kill him? If CPS had taken the child, half the people would say it was unfair.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Yes, yes, yes...typical behaviour. Lying, cheating, stealing, passing the buck...all in the name of "protecting our children". I'd like them to prove that, please.

They will move children indiscriminately from one foster home to the next so that they don't have to waste the gas driving an hour for familial visits. They honestly don't care...the ones that do care get out when they find out how bad it really is.

[mountaineer]

``I don't want my shorty to grow up to be a punk.''

Mission accomplished, I guess. What a moron.

[Okies love Dubya 2]

This is too sad--our own little boy is less than 2 weeks from eight months old and he is getting ready to crawl. It takes a real man to smack around a baby, don't it? God help me if I ever got in a room with this *%$#@!^.

BTW, Mom sounds like a real winner too. Where in the *&$% is her maternal instinct to protect her baby? Even animals have more protective instincts than some women I've seen.

[Cathryn Crawford]

And the other half would be busy trying to find his crack-whore mother, doing a home study, and pulling the child out of whatever foster home he had settled into in the year that it took to do this, and placing the child with someone he doesn't know.

Forgive my vitriolic attitude. I have had personal experience with them, and I will never, never, never forgive them for it.

[the Deejay]

"The infant managed to crawl toward his mother"

So, the mother was just a spectator while this was happening!? She's just as guilty as the father.

[Okies love Dubya 2]

I know what you'd do to this p.o.s.!

[Cagey]

She's just as guilty as the father.

Nah. This will just become another story on "Lifetime for Women Television" and she will be ordained a victim too.

[mtbrandon49]

Two short pieces of rope and one tall tree to delete this waste of skin.

[only1percent]

The idea of a lawyer leaving a vital case unhandled because it was 5 p.m. is maybe the most appalling thing about this. Prosecutors stay as late as it takes to get the job done -- why doesn't this ethos extend to DFS?

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

I have tears in my eyes. My son will be one in a few days. Doesn't take much to make a little one that age happy. When an adult takes away a child’s innocence I get so angry.

[mabelkitty]

I know of a single woman, early 20s, with a drug problem who was allowed to adopt a white baby under six months old.
She also had orgies in her trailer park, and she didn't have a job.

How f'd up is that?

[the Deejay]

I have a grandson the same age and when his teeth are bothering him, we give him a small dose of children's Tylenol and he's fine within a few minutes. I just can't understand why that thug had to beat that baby. NO EXCUSE for that whatsoever! (I'm just sickened at this story.)

[Warhammer]

God help me if I ever got in a room with this *%$#@!^.

Ditto OLD2! I have three 6 years old and younger and will have another in May and hearing that anyone would do something like this shakes me to the core. I guess it really shouldn't, but then I'm just not that jaded yet, I guess.

[Norse]

the black community has major issues. the first step is to get a hold of this ebonics problem

[Norse]

the black community has major issues. the first step is to get a hold of this ebonics problem

[Cathryn Crawford]

How f*ck*d up is the fact that my parents were not allowed to adobt a baby girl that had been living with them for nearly a year (since she was 2 months old), due to the fact that she was mixed (black and Vietnamese) and they were white?

My parents have been foster parents for nearly twenty years, and they've adopted twice. They absolutely hit a stone wall when they tried to do this.

Instead they moved the baby to an aunt a few hundred miles away. We haven't seen her since. They moved her THE VERY SAME DAY the decision was made. There was not even a pretense of "working her into the home" (see, I know all the terms) or whatever. It was simply done, and long-term damage to the child be damned.

[new cruelty]

You are right, stories like this are all too common. I just cannot understand how someone could inflict harm on a child. The very concept makes me feel ill.

I need a dandelion break.

[kaylar]

Is it wrong to hope that this POS winds up someone's "punk" in prison? Talk about poetic justice!

I don't normally wish sexual assault on people , and I despise those people who think it's cute to hope that any and every person with whom they disagree winds up in a cell with a 300 lb Bubba .(That's usually the term they use, BTW.) But in this case , I believe an exception is appropriate.

Worrying about a 8 month old's sexuality because teething pains make him cry! Can a two-legged thing so stupid and ignorant be considered human?

[Seruzawa]

Can't blame the father. His brain chemicals made him do it. Just put him on Prozac and he'll be fine.

I'll bet he's real sorry.

I'd like to give him a .357magnum apology.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

"The child abuse investigator."

Child "abuse."

The perp is a murderer, and we use jargon like "Child abuse?"

[Okies love Dubya 2]

Congratulations on your growing family! I would love to have a couple more, hopefully my sanity holds up long enough to do it!

I just realized that the first letters of my screen name spell OLD2 (I'm only 30, so it wasn't intentional--honest)!

[ThinkingMan]

I have 4 boys, ages 10, 6, 4, and 16 months- They have all cried while teething. Just a little childrens Tylenol and the world becomes a happier place. None of my boys are "punks" or "sissies" or whatever this bastard was so afraid of. BABIES CRY! It is a fact of life. Once their needs are met, they stop. This crap just makes me ill.

PS- Congrats on the 4th- now you will be outnumbered 2-1! Good luck!

[dark_lord]

Could it be because overall the social workers have the lowest IQ's and the worst education of any group of college graduates? (Even lower than College of Education graduates.)

Could it be because many of them are black racists who believe placing a "non-white" child in a "white" home is a crime against the child's "race"?

Could it be because they are demonically possessed?

My viewpoint is that it is all three.

[RussianConservative]

This jackarse should be pummelled to death...maybe he will consider what he did to his child before the light goes out.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

Does anybody see a pattern. I sometimes see wellfare moms and young not married moms and idealistic young people tell me that they are going to school for social work. It just doesn't work. Not only are they not prepared for the "tough love" that they have to give. But sometimes they just become enablers.

[Cathryn Crawford]

I don't know...you know the racist comment about the only good Indian is a dead Indian? Well, to paraphrase a bit...the only good social worker is a mute (they're already deaf) retired social worker.

I have stated this: the good ones get out (and I've known a few, out of the hundreds I have known, I've known a few) and stay out. Their consciences can't handle it.

As for the reverse racism, I was having a pretty good day, and this is really dredging it up. This just happened last year, and my family is still struggling to recover from losing a member of the family (for, that's what she was). The worst part is that they told us that we would be able to adopt her...my parents had everything planned, and then the rug was pulled out from under us. It's just a horrible, horrible thing.

[ctlpdad]

i hate DCF. they have a way of being SOOO wrong sometimes.
They let kids get murderd by scumbags while running down good people (fathers especially).
I knw someone who's daughter complained she was being abused because her father wouldn't drive her to the mall to hang out with friends, then said he was an alcoholic after he split a 12 pack with a friend on a saturday afternoon byt he pool. dcf opend a huge case and all sorts of stuff. Poor guy was crushed.

[pubmom]

Is it wrong to want to place the moron's head in a plastic bag and cinch it with some very strong rope?

[I still care]

I posted this article today. It explained so much of the mess I have seen here in FL. I want to take in some foster children but this article frightened the heck out of me.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/900202/posts

[mountaineer]

It's a real shame that people this clueless (and incapable of responsible parenting) can procreate with such ease.

[Cagey]

I heard a story on a New York news station this morning that New York is considering not allowing foster children to be placed in homes where an adult smokes cigarettes. So, there you go. That's what's important to these social service agencies now.

[I still care]

When I called someone and asked about how my home would be inspected for foster care, the first thing she told me was a smoke smell in the house was "an absolute no no".

[monday]

"She's just as guilty as the father."

sheesh...how do you know? Were you there?

[the Deejay]

"The infant managed to crawl toward his mother, Ciji Wright, 19, before his eyes rolled back and he stopped breathing."

READ the article.

[monday]

You don't know if she tried to stop him, if she was even there when the child was hit, only what happened after.

People like you who think the worst of people with no evidence are a pet peeve of mine. Not many mothers would sit idly by and watch while their child was abused, that you assume she did says more about you than her.

[Cagey]

Three weeks before he killed this child he stuffed a sock in the baby's mouth. I suspect, because the baby had the mother's last name and not the father's, that these two are not married. I'm sure the mother is devastated that she lost her baby but I really wonder what her priorities are. A better mother would have dumped this psychopath at least three weeks before he killed her child. Or, at the very least kept him away from her baby.

[mickey mouse]

you just don't know ciji i went to high school with her she was my best friend and i would do anything for her. she's very young and she's been through so much she's lost a child by victor a couple of months earlier. she didn't have anyone to talk to except me she would cry on my shoulder everyday. her and victor broke up after she lost the first baby her name was cazariah she was my god daughter and i loved her just like she was my own and victor made ciji feel like the whole thing was her fault when it wasn't and then she get pregnant by him again. i talked to ciji the day it happen because i spoke to kelton even though I've never seen kelton ciji made sure i had every picture that he took she made sure she sent me one. For her to call me the next day and tell me what victor had done i wanted to walk from Alabama to do something to him but i just told myself that I'll have to let the lord take of him. so don't judge ciji because you don't know her, this is coming from someone who has known ciji renea wright for six (6) years. I guess she thought that victor was someone who loved her but she would tell you if you ever meet her that i didn't want her being with him, because he looked like the type of person who would hurt an innocent baby.

[hellinahandcart]

so don't judge ciji because you don't know her, this is coming from someone who has known ciji renea wright for six (6) years.

[LauraJean]

I would go with demonically possessed. These same social workers, who refused mixed races babies to white man and woman have no problems with white gays getting custody of the children.

[Velveeta]

"The infant managed to crawl toward his mother, Ciji Wright, 19, before his eyes rolled back and he stopped breathing."

Here's hoping your good friend Ciji is in jail, where she belongs, with no chance of crawling anywhere in the near future.

[Fiddlstix]

The infant managed to crawl toward his mother, Ciji Wright, 19, before his eyes rolled back and he stopped breathing.

Good Lord! That can rip your heart out. I can't imagine such a thing.
A dying baby crawling to it's mother......
I'll be back online later.....
I need to take a break.

[Owl_Eagle]

            Really?  Because I knew ciji too and she wasn't at all what you describe her to be.  When I knew her she had a compulsive eating disorder and had a waist the size of a tennis court.  She litterally had to be rolled out of bed for her twice a week hosing downs given courtesy of the volunteer firedepartment in her converted mudroom.

            Victor, on the other hand, was a real piece of work. 

            I first came across this pitiful carbon blob in the upper level restroom of Giants stadium. He was incoherently drunk with his urine soaked pants lying in a heap between him and the toilet naked from the waist down.

            “Come and get it fellas” he quietly murmured.  Needless to say, I called security and he was escorted out with a trash bag tied around his waist and his soiled jeans stuffed down his tattered Mark Bavaro jersey.

            “Call me Victor the victorious… call me Victor the victorious…” he wailed. 

            Needless to say, he’s persona non grata at Giants Stadium now. But on the positive side, he’s found a new haunt to watch G Men games, “The Pier” a transgendered/sexual libertarian type bar in an alley in West Hoboken where his bizarre sexual proclivities are looked on with mild interest rather than the mind bending horrific disgust that he received in the Meadowlands.

Owl_Eagle

" WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
DIVERSITY IS STRENGTH"

[netmilsmom]

It's baaaaaack!

Quick work Sherlock!
I love your pings....