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.