Episode 246

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I think Austin has one of the scariest
type of anger issues because he holds everything in and he doesn't let it out,
and then when it does come out, it's too much. Okay,
I promise after this we're done with child murder. I swear I've had enough.
I don't I don't even know why why we've done so many this year.
It it just happened. Whatever. This is season ten, episode two
forty six, and Sword and Scale show that reveals that the worst monsters are
real. So we are fully aware of all of the psyche problems, all
of the problems. It's about five years old now. We're working on it.
We've been working on it now for a while. But technology is hard,
so please bear with us. Thank you so much for sticking with us
as Plus members. If you haven't joined yet, you can still join.
It's still five bucks a month because of our technology problems. Go over to
swortinscale dot com slash plus. That's where you get it. Life is a
struggle. Anyone not born with a silver spoon in their mouth is profoundly aware
of that fact. Trials and tribulations are ever present in today's society. We
can either adapt and overcome life's obstacles or wallow and self pity and complain and
bitch and moan on Twitter about how life is unfair. These people have so
much more than I do. You have to push yourself though, to achieve
your dreams, because sitting there and complaining isn't going to do you any good.
You have to, how do they say, hustle a little bit.
But it's important not to let the grind where you're down either. You could
easily lose sight of your dreams because you get bogged down by the day to
day and all of us of day to day nonsense we have to deal with.
And let's just say that you are one of those lucky ones and through
some grace of God or game of chance, you happen to actually achieve those
dreams. You get everything you've ever wanted. Well, those dreams are rarely
easy to achieve, but they're always easy to lose. And take it from
me, one mistake will cost you everything you've ever worked for and never wanted.
Hello, Hi, Hi, is this Erica? This is Erica.
She asked us to keep her last name confidential. Okay, wow, well,
holy crap. This doesn't happen very often, but oh my gosh,
it was. It was when I first saw the news one was it about
well last year? I could I could not believe it. I couldn't believe
it. And Ari was a was a good friend. She was a comedian.
I live in Chlotte, North Carolina, and she lived in Greenville,
South Carolina, which is about two hours away. And we met through a
mutual friends, she who was also a comedian, and she we just you
know, how you just click with some people. That's what happened with Ari.
Okay, so let's let's just back up for a second, kind of
explain how we got in contact, because this is an unusual thing to happen
here, one sort of scale, like me calling you out of the blue,
you reaching out to me on social media because you have something to say.
If you could just sum that up a little bit, well, I
just saw those Now people were losing their mind because he came back to social
media, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous, Like, good lord, let
a man be he just you know, he's just doing this thing and I
was just happy to see you back trolling people. But listen, my job
is to provide entertainment. So if I can do that in anyway whatsoever,
even if it's just to make an ass of myself on social media, then
that's what I'm going to do, because that's of course, yes, absolutely,
But okay, So you reached out after that, and you're like,
hey, by the way I sent you that in that article about ari By,
it was just like mistake because I was sending it to a friend of
mine who whose name was right underneath yours, and I just clicked yours by
mistake. This is an interesting case, one that we probably wouldn't have covered
except for the unusual way we found out about it. Erica sent us an
article about this case by mistake. In January of twenty twenty one, in
the city of Simpsonville, South Carolina, tucked into the state's upcountry, a
tragedy struck in a quiet neighborhood of split level housing on the west side of
town. Were coming Number one was full the emergency he able emergency not its
own responses. He's dronk a lot of waters and were what addressing that?
Then we'll hu get you over to MS line up. Jerry Austin Robinson called
nine one at two fifteen pm on January fifteenth, twenty twenty one for his
soon to be daughter, three year old Victoria, affectionately known as Tory.
He and his wife Ariel Robinson already began to attempt CPR on the little girl.
They claimed she drank two much water and began to choke. Alert for
Austin to come upstairs. He gave me in the room when she was on
her arm stool and he looked at me and he was like, is she
breathing? And I said, I think I hear her trying to breathe.
I hear something in her lungs though it sounds like she's got like fluid in
her lungs. And so they said should I call my one one? I
said, yeah, I called nine one one because I don't I don't know,
I don't know what to do, and ask the fire what's the address
of your merchant? Tell me exactly, I breathe on daughter sling on water
right now? There's three year old daughter? Is what choking on water right
now would help? Immediately? Okay? I we can't help on the way
Okay, she is. So is she coughing like choking or not fire water?
It's hard to tell because they talk over each other, but Austin said
little Tory was not conscious. She had choked on water and become unresponsive.
Nine one one would talk them through laying her flat on the floor and performing
CPR. You've heard all this stuff before. The Simpsonville Fire Department would arrive
four minutes later and take over. About five minutes after that EMS arrived.
Not only was Tory unresponsive, but she also didn't have a pulse. Darry
and Ariel sat on their bed in the room across the hall and quietly stared
in disbelief. They just listened to the ruckus of the many paramedics trying to
save Tory's life. Tory had only been alive for a short time, but
had already been with three families. She and her older brothers were in South
Carolina's foster care system. Her biological parents were good parents, They just weren't
good together or a toxic couple. We always co parented well when that we
were apart. It was if we got together that was a problem. He
was the best dad, and that's not anything that anybody can say that we
weren't good parents. We were just made bad decisions. Tori's bio mom,
Casey, tried to do everything they asked to get her kids back. What
all did you do to get to that point where you were trying so hard
to prove that you wanted her it? I did from the very beginning.
I made it very clear that I would do anything DSS told me. From
at the beginning. They were, you know, they were very content with
how fast I was doing. I had to do parenting classes and I did
the in home parenting. I did it at the Dream Center. I did
both because I did I missed the class on one and they said between the
others. I did two parent classes. Then I did twenty six weeks of
battered Women's classes. I did the two times a week for twelve weeks at
the Phoenix Center, a while pregnant and I didn't have a vehicle, so
I had to find rods to these. It was difficult. They knew that
I asked her help multiple times. It was just one thing after another after
another. My living situation got bounced around back and forth. They I've asked
for help for that, and there's just roadblock after roadblock after block, and
every time I get so close, and I did. I completed all of
the things that they asked me to do, but every time I got close
division it was something else, something else, and then by the end of
it, it was I didn't have the one of the five mentor things that
you have to have accorded the DSS. Casey jumped through hoops to get her
kids back, but fell short on one thing, her own place to live.
DSS made me feel that it was better for them that you know,
they had and they Victoria was with a loving foster family, and I thought
in my heart that that's where they were going, and that you know or
someone like that, a family like that. I thought that's what the system
was for. And so I thought, well, you know, if they
could have better, happier lives and could become better, you know, versions
of themselves, than I guess that's okay. And DSS. I trusted them.
Casey was and only wanted the best for her children. So when the
DDS told her she couldn't have her kids back, she wasn't fit, they
convinced her the children would be better off, better provided for if she gave
them up. For adoption. Tori and her brothers lived for ten months with
the Huggins family. When she entered her room, all eyes were on her
because she demanded it, and she was a cutieu. She was funny,
she was sassy, definitely had some sassy. But after that short stint in
foster care, Tori and her two brothers got some good news. A family
was willing to adopt them. Here's Erica again for Ariel. She's had two
biological sons and she always wanted to have a daughter, and she, you
know, she tried. She told me that she was that she had tried
IDs and it didn't take. So she decided to go through other means to
find that piece of family that she felt was missing. She had two biological
boys of her own with her husband, and ari decided to adopt. And
she was very excited back in the fall of twenty nineteen because they had called
her to tell her that there was a newborn adoption that they had her on
the list for, and this woman was ecstatic. Unfortunately, that adoption fell
through for whatever reason. She tried again a few months later to see if
she could get a foster child or find a little girl that she you know,
she could call her own, and the agency called her told her that
there was a little girl that they could foster. She came from a broken
home. When they contacted Ariel and told her that, you know, they
was a little girl that had two little brothers, she said, well,
you know what, I'll adopt all three of them because I can't what kind
of person would I be if I were to separate this little girl from her
from her brothers. After always wanting a daughter of her own, Ariel,
who everyone calls ari got her wish fulfilled. She and Austin would adopt three
more children to make them a family of seven. The Robinsons were soon to
be Tory and her brothers forever home, with the adoptions set to be final
in just five days after the call to nine. Now she was lying lifeless
on the floor. In an effort to regain a pulse of paramedic administered six
doses of epinephrine directly into her femur, but that did nothing. As they
continued to urge Tory's heart to beat, they noticed odd bruising on her abdomen
and legs. The fire department immediately notified police. Charlie won't just be advised.
I am holding a confirmed ten eighty nine juvenile, so a circle fd's
requesting p D. When the police arrived and asked how Tory got the bruises,
Ari explained that she pushed really hard on her stomach during her attempts at
the Heimlich maneuver and CPR Riel told us that she did the bruising right then
and there, prior to nine one being called to try to do the Heimlich
and was pushing on her stomach and that. But I asked, what about
the legs? How did they get so purple? Ari explained that her older
brother had anger issues and was violent, mostly taking his anger out on young
Tory. With so many families and such a short amount of time, it's
hard to pinpoint where behavior is learned. But Ari was blaming the behavioral issues
on the previous foster parents. She just she had the best personality. And
I'm not just saying that because I was her mama. But you could not
be mad at that girl, just by the way she looked and how sweet
she was. She was sweet as could possibly be. Officers looked at the
bruises and then looked at pictures of Tori's two older brothers, and knew something
just wasn't adding up. When I looked at the little boys, Jaden being
the bigger one, and how small he was to myself, I thought,
I said, you know, I don't care if you gave that kid a
ball back. He can't. He's not going to be able to do this
much damage to that little girl. Tori's older brothers were barely so. One
was six, the other was seven, but far too small to inflict the
amount or the severity of bruising the officer's witnessed on Tori. When officers asked
Ari what led up to Tori's condition, Austin stood quietly nearby and let Ari
do the talking. She explained that after a pancake breakfast and half a popsicle
for a mid morning snack, Tori went to watch TV. Then she began
asking for more and more cups of water, far more than she usually drank.
When Ari went to check on her, she noticed her stomach had become
hard, and Tori was complaining of it hurting and that she was cold.
Ari wrapped her in a heated blanket before she went limp. When Tori's breathing
became labored and she began to make a gurgling sound. Ari tried to perform
the Heimlich maneuver because she thought she was choking, and she realized that wasn't
working. She laid Tory on her back and pushed on her stomach. Eventually,
Tory expelled the water and the rest of the contents of her stomach,
but still wasn't breathing any better. That's when Ari told Austin to call nine
one one. After finally getting a faint pulse from Tory, she was rushed
to the hospital for further treatment. The police and DSS would start investigating her
mysterious injuries. The police were suspicious, and rightfully so. Little kids don't
drink water until they pass out. It's just not a thing. The bruising
seemed like the more obvious reason for the little girl's condition. The bruises seemed
recent, and Ari and Austin were the only ones home with little Tory that
day. Just until they got to the bottom of her injuries. The rest
of the Robinson children would be removed from the home. Ari's two biological children
were placed with her father, and Tori's brothers were put with yet another foster
family. Tori, though wouldn't be so lucky. Later that evening, they
would get word that Tory had passed away. A call to nine one sent
a slew of emergency personnel to the Robinson's home. A distress call for a
child choking on water led to the discovery of far worse injuries. Three year
old Tory was covered from the waist down with dark bruises. As word of
the potential crime was disseminated through the community, everyone found it was hard to
imagine such a thing could happen in Simpsonville, named the safest city in South
Carolina since twenty seventeen, especially because ari was a recent local celebrity. How
did you meet Ariel Ariel Robinson? Am I pronouncing that correctly? Yes?
I met Ariel at a comedy show. It was back in two thousand eighteen
that I met her. She was headlining a show at a local brewery and
I met her and I talked her after the show. We clicked and we
started a friendship through Facebook. And it was a great time, wonderful personality.
Had had a lot to say. I said a lot of things that
made you also think, not not part of the show, just some personal
conversation. That that's how I met her. We want a sister. We
want a sister. You know. Ari was an up and coming stand up
comedian who Erica was introduced to by a mutual friend. We just kept in
contact through Facebook. Mostly. I really couldn't travel much to her city,
but we kept on come to contact through Facebook, called each other, you
know, maybe every two or three weeks. The chance of meeting blossomed into
a true friendship, both online and off. Let's get a girl, doll,
I said, okay, we'll do this. So we go to the
pil we'll get it. I would see one dollar she like, she didn't
hand, but he sum my guys stretched out. They want to visit out
so they sad, don't worry. Her still wasn't go there, dail over
time it did not. We can't have surgery and make a plate any do
you want me to have plays and surgery on my dog? So this dollar
you can to tell me? Tell me while I still want my love like
eyes tapooks. I don't think you know how it works. When I would
go out and see her and shows at different places, she would seend she
would come over here often to to my city as well, and I would
make sure that we would have either dinner before or dinner after. We you
know, we made sure to just spend time together. But before she was
comedian, Ari was the farthest thing from it. And knowing kids today,
she was likely the butt of the joke. She used to be a teacher.
I want to say it was middle school. She used to be an
English teacher on top of that, and she was beloved by her by her
students, and you couldn't find anybody who would say a bad thing about her.
And then she quit teaching because she was going to pursue comedy full time.
She was doing very well. She was getting booked around the country.
She had and she had quite a following. She was she was doing really
well with herself, and then she got the spot on Food Network with Worse
Cooks of America. Food Networks Worst Cooks in America is like a cooking game
show where twelve to sixteen unskilled contestants compete to cook a three course meal for
three food critics. Sounds like a fun show. Actually, I'd probably watch
it, as you can imagine, though most of the dishes were inevitible.
Out of eleven thousand people, I was one of fourteen. Then I had
to not only be everybody on my team, I had to be the best
person on the Red team who would be everybody on their team. Yes,
I am putting Mayo in a glove, and she was, and she was
getting calls for shows after appearing on on Worse Cooks of America because she won,
she won, she won on the show, she won, she won
twenty five thousand dollars, and cook said and something something else. I never
cried one time on the show. I was just a president because I think
I was so nervous that if I if I released too much, I'm gonna
release too much. I'm the winner of Worse Cooks in America? Is ryd
Now? I truly am not the worst cook in America. And she said
she did it all for her kids. I wanted to win this money so
much for them to give them a better life. They are loving my new
cooking skills. Like every day my kids start requesting new stuff and I'm like,
hey, wait a minute, I'm not a waitress. Now, I
don't got a whole pantry in here to go cook for y'alla, this is
a restaurant. I just know that the Lord had his hands on me,
and he had a purpose for me to go on there. He knew we
were going through this adoption, we really could use the money, and he
just let everything work out for our good. Ari took a gamble, quitting
her teaching career to pursue one in comedy, but it seemed to be paying
off and just in the nick of time, but she got the spot on
Worst Cooks in America. She was about to lose her house. The windfall
of cash saved their home and set them up to adopt the daughter she always
wanted. So I'm trying to a girl and s work or you know,
they have to come my other grand you know see that you're not too crazy
to a doll and the hallway is coming over on thy y'all tell my husband
I said, you go with. We should have lost the other two of
the cages because she meant them too. Ain't a waiting give us another.
She ain't stare at a toy. They upstairs all I'm screaming where moms saying,
Okay, mom, gonna give y'all white out kids either. But I
don't stay I screaming going all you know you can say, mommy live and
you like good a head. Fine, the moment is in my face.
So I turned around. Yeah upstairs, should turning around, and she's looking
at me exact way Y'll look at It's again we got proved. Did you
know anything about her husband or boyfriend? All I knew about her husband was
what she would tell me, how he was very supportive of her, everything
that that she did. She would always say about him, that he was
great, he was understanding. When she told him that she wanted to go
full time comedian, he said that he would back her up. What did
he do for a living? I can't remember what he did. When Ari
quit teaching to pursue comedy, her husband, Austin supported her. He said
he would back her up. The reason Erica couldn't remember what he did was
that he didn't really do anything. He dropped out of high school in the
twelfth grade and never got his ged. Now, at thirty four, he
worked odd jobs, like at a chicken processing facility, but mostly he just
managed Ari's comedy career. From chicken processing to entertainment manager sounds like a pretty
legit career path. The day after Tory's death, the Simpsonville PD served a
search warrant at the Robinson residence. It was a normal family home other than
the number of Wi Fi cameras, which was weird. There was at least
one camera in every room. Some rooms had two cameras, but when asked
if they recorded, the police were told they were live view only. Ari
told officers her adoption lawyer advised her not to talk to the cops without counsel,
but she had nothing to hide, so she said she would answer any
questions they had that should give you a clue as to the intelligence and narcissism
of this person. She said that the day before the incident, Tory had
thrown up on the way to church, which wasn't concerning because Tory often threw
up after eating or drinking too quickly. After church, she seemed to find
she took a bath and went to bed like normal. She reiterated. The
day of the incident started like most days, with a pancake breakfast. Afterward,
Tori drank an unusual amount of water before complaining of not feeling well.
This time, however, she admitted Tory was not choking, but rather acting
like she wanted to throw up. When Ari decided to perform the Heimlich After
running through all the events again, Ari sat down at her computer and began
to work. When asked what she was doing, she said she was working
on her next comedy skit and invited the officer to check her out online.
So just to reiterate for a second. Less than twenty four hours after Tori
was pronounced dead, Ari was working on joke and promoting herself. Four days
later, the police would serve two arrest warrants for Ari and Austin. They
were out there heavy and it was more than one car, more than two
cars. Every day, there was more cars. As the news of little
Tory's death spread, those that knew the Robinsons were surprised. Well, I
told you something was going on up there with all the forensics, but I
didn't expect this. I definitely said something, Mom's something happened. It's sad
because that was a beautiful little girl. God, she was beautiful. It
was shocking because no one that knew Ari and Austin would ever expect a child
in their care to die. It's not her character. Like you, if
you see her, she's such a bubbly person. She's making you laugh,
even if she's upset. She's gonna make you laugh. Her family is amazing.
They didn't they just I don't know. It just kind of strikes me
in surprise. She's always wanted a linded family and a huge family, and
she loves kids to be on the outside looking in. We don't know the
full story, of course, and I'm hoping we can get the full story.
But I just raised in peace to it. Beautiful baby girl. By
all accounts, the Robinson's were your typical family, albeit a large family.
Ari was funny and they were both polite. She was a former teacher and
now spend her life trying to make others laugh while Austin took care of the
kids. The whole idea that they abused a child was entirely out of character.
Tori's former foster family only felt sadness and disbelief. She just has so
much toll from yeah, and she's going to be missed by many, many,
many people. I still don't believe that it's true. I just feel
like maybe we'll all wake up and it'll be a bad dream. At the
time of their arrest, the police didn't know what exactly happened the Tory.
They only knew that she was dead, and it didn't happen because of drinking
too much water. Either Ari or Austin or both. We're responsible. Tori's
biological family didn't need to know who or why to know that her death should
never have happened. I can't imagine what she would have done to make them.
I feel UPSI. Victoria is not the first child, and she hasn't
been the last one. They've been death since then within this system. But
we're doing our best to stop that, and we're doing in Victoria's honor.
Our family is very staunched in our belief that we don't think the DSS system
needs to be dismantled. It is there for a reason, and there are
children that need to be saved. But there are some gaps, there are
some cracks, and this tragedy happened because of those gaps and those cracks,
and that's the part that we want to say fixed. We're fifty thousand strong
here and saying that this should not have happened. And here's the things that
we have seen within the system that are falled, and we would like to
work with you to make sure that this doesn't happen again. There's no room
for error in this system. This is the system that cannot fail. They
got nearly fifty thousand signatures to petition the state to create Victoria's Law that would
revise the DSS procedure for accepting new foster families. They want the screening process
to be more thorough by conducting psychological evaluations of prospective foster parents. Everyone was
wondering how this could have happened, and soon it would all be revealed.
The day they were both arrested, Austin wasn't actually at home. He was
on his first day at a new job that is Nat had found for him.
So after Ari was arrested, Austin was contacted and told to come home.
When he arrived twenty minutes later, he too was arrested. He immediately
declined to speak without an attorney. Once at the station for booking, he
made two utterances. First, he asked if he had to be in a
cell with his wife. When the officer said no, but the cell was
directly next to hers, he made a second utterance. He said he didn't
want to be anywhere near her. Two weeks later, Austin's attorney reached out
to the police and said he was ready to make a statement. Austin told
a completely different story, of course. Police responded to five on five cell
Wood Circle within Greenville County and found three year old Victoria Rose Smith unresponsive and
badly injured could offended. Ariel Robinson told first responders that they thought Tory was
drinking too much water, but firefighters saw unexplained excessive bruising all over Tori's body,
deep purple bruising on her abdomen, bruising on her ear, bruising her
back, and up and down both of her legs. She told police that
the night before, Tory had thrown up on the way to church. Ariel
Robinson said after church, they ate pizza at home and Tori seemed fine.
They went to bed with no issues, she said. The next morning,
on January fourteenth, twenty twenty one, Ariel said, Tory woke up ate
pancakes. While she and this defendant were home alone with the child and the
other four children were at school. Ariel Robinson said Tory kept asking for water
and this defendant filled up her cup five or six times. She also said
Tory said her stomach hurt and that she was cold. She gave her a
heated blanket and was holding Tor when Ariel Robinson said the child went limp.
Ariel Robinson then said she tried to perform the Highlich maneuver because she thought the
child was choking while police were on the scene. This defendant maintained Ariel Robinson's
account what happened to Tori. Ari's story set off a lot of red flags
in the minds of the police. They couldn't believe she was that oblivious to
the real reason Tory was dying on the floor, and it wasn't from drinking
too much water, by the way, several days later, they were both
arrested. After the arrest, Austin Robinson's attorney contacted the state and stated that
his client wished to make a statement. No promises were given to this defendant,
and the phone call was on this defendant's accord. The defendant came in
voluntarily and met with police to tell what had really happened to Tori. Austin
felt ashamed and guilty about Tori's death and wanted to come clean, so he
volunt teared the truth to the police rather than use it as a bargaining chip
or lesser charges. He said he had not physically ever hurt Tory, but
that his wife would spank and beat her. Austin Robinson said Ariel Robinson hit
Tory with different things, including a belt, paddle, flipflop, hand,
or whatever. He said, Tory got the worst of it for some reason
when Ariel would become angry over eating habits such as Tory taking too long.
Austin became emotional when he told the police that Ari's reasoning for spanking the three
year old was to make her tough. He went on to say she often
felt bad after the spankings and would put ice packs on the little girl's bruises.
He told police how Ariel had become angry the night before Tory's death because
she threw up on herself on the way to church. Austin explained that ari
was first annoyed at the three year old not being able to buckle herself into
her car seat. When Austin reached back to help her, it pissed off
ari even more. On the way to church, Tory was eating some food
and ari was pressuring the little girl to finish by the time they got there.
To avoid punishment. She shoved the food in her face, gagged,
and vomited. On herself while ari tried to find replacement clothes for little Tori,
a task that took her to a big box store, only to realize
she didn't have her credit card. Austin took the rest of the kids into
the church. When they finally joined them after borrowing some clothes from her sister,
everything seemed fine, but that evening, while Austin was giving Tori a
bath, he noticed big bruises on her back that weren't there before. He
believed ari hit Tori when she was changing her clothes in the parking lot.
The next morning, this defendant said it all started when Ariel was fussing at
Tor for not eating her pancakes fast enough, and then Ariel had put Tori
on a timer. All she ever told me was that the little girl was
a handful, and that the girl to give her trouble eating, but that
she would that she would, you know, she'd be able to take care
of it, just little by little. As she was having very she wish
she would be really patient with as patient as she could be. She did
say that her parents were strict bringing her up, but that it was good
for her. Austin explained that Tori ate fine when it was just him and
her. This upset Ari. So when Tory took too long to eat,
are you would give her three chances? She would set a timer on her
phone for two minutes. When the timer ended, that was the first warning.
She then would reset the timer for one minute when that timer ended,
that was the second warning. Then she would set a timer for thirty seconds.
When that timer was up. If the food wasn't gone, Tori would
get a spanking. And what were you doing outside the house? I was
putting the yard work, especially just taking I just let my van you get
tiled off and all that stuff. I was trying to get that fixed.
But other than that, I was just trying to pick up like stuff from
the backyards of the fom yard and move to the front. At that time,
when you were outside the house that morning, what did you hear screaming
and crying? What was Tori screaming and crying about? Basically just getting first
at my home mother, getting a woman for night, ing for food and
I'm sorry you set up whooping. Okay, had you ever heard this before?
Can you speak a little at her? Yes, so you were outside
you heard this whooping happening? Why did you not walk inside? Austin was
non confrontational. Even the neighbors said that ari was the leader of the house
and that Austin was more passive. He said ari would get physical with him
as well, and showed them a scar on his shoulder where she had stabbed
him. By the time I'll walk in there, it was as if nothing
was going on, I said. She was seemingly okay at the time.
Okay that morning when Tori woke up, was she fine? All right?
So at some point do you walk inside to see what's going on with this
whooping that's happening to Tori? And when you walked inside, what if anything
did you see? You saw the bruising. Who was in the house when
you came inside and saw the bruising on Tori? Can you speak up?
And can you tell the poor what if anything was Ariel holding at that time?
And what if anything was Tory doing at that time? What was Tory
wearing? Nothing? So you saw the bruising, what did you say,
if anything to Ariel Robinson when you walked in? So far that we had
gone too far as time I should have stopped it. Austin carried on doing
his daily chores while his wife berated the little girl. Finally, when he
realized the whooping was lasting a lot longer than normal, he went to investigate.
He found Ari standing over a little tory, holding a belt and yelling
in her face. You're done, You're done. You don't get to tell
me when you're done. It was then he noticed more bruises on the little
girl, who was only wearing a diaper. Ari's response to his comments about
going too far this time was now, look, you got your dad upset.
Like before, Ari snapped out of her rage and suddenly felt sympathy for
her soon to be daughter. They decided to try and give her an Epsen
salt bath to soothe her bruises. While Austin went to buy children's tail and
all she was already complaining about her stomach hurting. She lesson was trying to
fall he steps when Aaron would give her trying to give her a bath,
and her and towards her staff. What she failed? And she tried to
water rustle the way. Why did she fall from the money? I'm sorry?
So she walks upstairs after falling. What happened? Then? I'm glad
to go get tom All was her in the bathroom. When he returned,
Ari had Tori out of the bath and wrapped in an electric blanket. When
Ari held the little girl, she involuntarily defecated twice. After that, Little
Tory did ask for a lot of water and drank more than normal, but
nothing was making her stomach feel any better. Ari asked her if she felt
like she needed to throw up, and she said yes. Then Tori vomited
in the trash can. That was when she went limp, and Ari tried
the Heimlich maneuver before giving up and just pressing on her stomach really hard to
expel more water. Then Austin finally called nine to one, but only after
asking Ari if he should. We are thankful that he has cooperated with prosecution
and is working with them to make sure that Ariel is held responsible to the
fullest instant of South Carolina law allows for this case, but we just wish
he had done something sooner. He also admitted that Ari deleted all the footage
from the cameras and even the app itself. When they checked Ari's phone to
confirm some of his claims, they were unable to recover the account for the
cameras, but they did notice something else. Ari's timer was set to thirty
seconds. Of course, as admission made him responsible for Tori's death also,
but it was just Austin's word against Ari's. At this point, all of
the facts would have to be sorted out in trial. Meanwhile, Tori's biological
family wanted her body so they could finally put her to rest. Nobody and
my family's holding it will. The emotions in this family are very raw.
You know, if something was taken from you and then hurt the way that
it was hurt, and all you want to do is like their SOLDI wrists.
I mean, what would you if it was your family? What would
you do? That's what I want to say. If it was somebody that
mattered to you, wouldn't you want the right to bury your family the way
that I want to bury my daughter. Let us give her a proper funeral
and say goodbye, just one last time. We love you and we're so
sorry if this happened to you. But I promise you we are not resting
until it's right. Casey, Tori's biological mother, that didn't stop there with
her efforts in this case. She went on to speak at Ari's bond hearing
in a victim impact statement, your owner Zyars on Thursday, January the fourteenth
of twenty twenty one, three year old Victoria Rose take this earth. My
family and I have been devastated by her passing. And it's because it is
that way, perspectullyric quest that you did not barn for the defendant. Thank
you so much for being here, ma'am and I am. I'm just so
sorry for your loss and my condolences to you and the family. Thank you.
After that teary eyed statement, Ari's defense lawyer tried to convince the judge
that Ari deserved release on bond. Imagine that she's twenty nine years old.
She's lived her entire life in Greenville County in the U State. She's a
graduate from Lanter University with degree in communications. She also holds a master's degree
in education from the Clubs and University. She was a middle school teacher from
twenty sixteen to twenty nineteen here in the up State. She had been the
childerest Creator Church for seven years. She was an assistant coach was an assistant
coach for an Upstate middle school basketball team. She volunteered as a coach at
the YNCA as Simpson Board for a couple of years. She was until recently
on the PTA board and an upstate elementary schools at Elementary school here in Greenville
County, she volunteered career affairs carecter building workshops and two different schools in the
up state. Or essentially she'd been she'd been heavily involved in the community her
entire life. Lonis Robinson had no prior criminal history. Alvin Payne. Her
father is a retired army officer. Her mother's Sharon's or retired to substitute teacher
god Or. Her sister, Telicia, who's president, was a pharmacist.
She currently works at Presbyterian College here, lives in the up state, has
an entire life, and they're here just in a support of miss Robinson.
Even with all the good she did in life, the death of Tory overshadowed
at all based on the seriousness of the charges. In the egregious nature of
the allegations in this case, mister Boughton, I respectfully deny bond. All
right, thank you. Ari attending the bond hearing via zoom, collapsed on
the table and defeat when she heard that she wasn't getting out before trial.
Austin, however, would be released on house arrest. The tragic death of
three year old Tory led to a troubling look into the home of the Robinson's.
According to Austin, Ari was a tyrannical mother to their soon to be
adopted little girl that exacted punishment quickly and fiercely. A child was dead far
too soon, a family shattered, and a husband and wife pitted against each
other. Austin would be charged with aiding and abetting homicide by a child abuse,
even with the threat of ten to twenty years in prison. Austin further
asserted he was telling the truth about Ari by pleading guilty and foregoing a jury
trial, but at Ari's trial they would both take the stand and point the
finger at each other. The evidence in this case is that substance of the
charge is that Ariel Robinson who charged with causing the death of a child under
the age of eleven by child abuse or neglect under circumstances that exit it in
a stream and difference to human life. And you hear the devastating series of
events. They go from Tory trying to eat some pancakes, to a child
beaten, to a hall. The trial dissected every aspect of Ari's claim of
what actually happened. They found a witness at church that overheard Ari talking to
Tori in the bathroom. I heard Ariel say, oh you're cold. You're
cold. Girls that make themselves throw up deserve to be cold. I just
remember thinking, Oh, no, you know, I wonder why did she's
talking during that kind of tone. Oh I didn't say that. Those exact
waris now. They also found surveillance footage at the church. It showed Ari
hurrying Tory out of the bathroom and into the parking lot. As soon as
they passed the threshold of the door, Ari jerked the near nude toddler by
her arm. She grabbed the little girl and carried her to the car,
not like a child, but sideways across both of her arms. The most
important thing noticed in the video is the lack of bruises on little Tory,
and the bruises were a big part of this case. This is extensive,
dependent bruising on a child's body that was inflicted repetitively by blunt force trauma,
which is the worst I've seen. It was determined that all of the bruises
were made at the same time. There was no previous incident with her old
their brothers. This fact is further supported by interviews done with the Robinson children,
who confirmed their mother would use a belt to discipline them. So this
isn't what we think of as a traditional bruise of the skin. This is
a severe d injury that's tearing tissue from tissue and allowing blood to collect within
the tissues underneath the skin. Little Tory's cause of death was internal bleeding.
Her legs were beaten so badly that the skins separated from the muscle and blood
pooled. The trapped blood couldn't make its way back to her heart. What's
the last thing you recalled? Where it's saying to you? Or She was
playing on the bed before she got peet macco and she told me she loved
me, And I said I love me too. I said, promise,
will this will happen again? She said okay, and I said I love
you. I said I live in too. She gotta keep westde I live
you too, And that was the last thing she said to me. Austin
expressed remorse and deep sadness. He regretted the reason he didn't call nine one
one sooner. I was scared. I was trying to pretend her all Day
four of the trial, Ari took the stand in her own defense. How
did it make you feel to have a little girl house? It made me
feel really good. It made me feel a lot more girly cause I'm Tory.
What kind of childs was Tory? I'm sorry, Tory was perfect.
She was perfect child. She didn't have a lot of behavior issues. I'm
really easy to get along wits. Oh did you spoil your kids? Yeah,
especially Victorian. It was easy because she was the baby girl. I
was a baby my family, and though I always played favorites with the baby
anyways, and it was just really easy because she was a girl, the
only girl. So yeah, we had a good relationship. She wasn't my
mini me. She would talk like me, at like me. She wanna
go everywhere I went. She wouldn't do everything I did. She placed all
the blames squarely on Austin's shoulders. A guilty woman blaming a man for her
own actions. That's new. And you would agree because you've seen us that
Victoria was beaten into a hall. Correct. I would agree with that.
You believe you call the prisoner herself. See, no, it's either you
or Austin, correct, I would say so. I think Austin has one
of the scariest type of anger issues because he holds everything in and he doesn't
let it out, and then when it does come out, it's too much
because he bottles it up. But a social media post for Father's Day by
Ari would contradict that claim. This is a little Father's Day post you did
for Austin gret Correct. There's another daddy daughter duo in the world who love
each other more than these two right here. The post went on to say
that the kids needed discipline, and I know that will never come from you
having bothers dab let me bungeous. The whole trial boiled down to one thing.
Who do you believe all scenarial I think we can probably admit that the
evidence dictates that one of these two people committed this crib. Less than an
hour and a half later, the jury returned the verdict to See of South
Carolina versus Scarriel S. Robinson as to the charge of homicide by child abuse
le the jury nmically unanimously find a defendant guilty of homicide by child abuse almost
immediately after the judge delivered are a sentence. I think medical testimony in this
case was incredibly heartbreaking. And for folks who deal in the emergency room and
who serve us in that way, and folks who deal with children in the
most critical of situations, for them to say that this was substant actually worse
than anything they had seen, I think that has to put something into perspective
for you. I can say that in my thirteen fourteen years of being a
judge, I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like this,
not even approaching it. And what compounds it is that I understand what
your attorney is saying. Perhaps she snapped at that moment, but then why
then why let this child suffer and not get for medical attention that she desperately
needed as she lay dying in her own bedroom. Based on all that,
the sentence of the court cannot be anything but life in prison. Thank you.
Tori's biological family who attended the trial were overjoyed by the outcome. They
we're just here as representation for Victoria and then you know that she was loved
Jo. We just want to thank everyone, from the police to first responders,
the nurses, the doctors, the Christie and her team, the jury.
Everyone, Thank you guys so much, but they still had anger in
their hearts. They thought Ari got what she deserved and more thankful that Austin
did the right thing. He just did it too late. Honestly, I'd
like to see him and get his knights on them as well. Twenty years
you know, and that I mean, he is just as responsible. He
could have stopped that. He didn't. You said that you knew that she
had been beating on, that your wife had been doing this for the safety
of your own kids, if anything, why didn't you stop that? Because
it could have turned from my child to your child very quickly. I just
feel like, as a parent, you should have said something. During Austin's
sentencing, he addressed the court in an attempt to be treated with mercy.
And the day goes by where I don't steal a name by tour. There's
nothing I will do to go back and change things, even though I know
I can't. I lived there and I still do. I wish I would
have him on things differently and consumer, but I was terrified here. I
didn't think that things were at that matter too, that they were in tools
too late, and I have to move with that and new live with that
every day in my life story of family. I am truly, truly sorry
for all this, and I hope him pray them one day. Y'all can't
forgive me. Austin begged for the sake of his own children for the judge
to consider sentencing him to ten to twenty years but leaving him on house arrest.
It was no use, though. The judge cited all the opportunity that
he had to help to call nine one one to do anything, but he
didn't. He was aware of ongoing abuse, and he did nothing. In
the end, and probably rightfully so he was sentenced to the maximum of twenty
years in prison. These little boys, tories, brothers, biological brothers,
you know, they're back in the system, and God knows what kind of
family they're going to be put with, and my size wherever they are.
I just I love you guys so much, and I hope that I hope
y'all can feel me with you, because I just I'm thinking about you guys
all the time. And then Ariel's children, her biological children, are also
in the system now because both of her parents, you know both of their
parents are in jail. They're in prison. The death of Tory led to
two families being torn apart. Ari's kids will never see their mother outside of
prison walls, and they will likely be in their thirties when Austin is released
at the age of fifty four. Even after the trial was all said and
done, those that knew the Robinson's that knew Ari were still in disbelief.
I'm torn because part of me wants her to get the help that she needs,
but the other part is is like, God, damn, I hope
you're fucking vernon hell forever. It's a whole mixed bag of emotions and feelings
and thoughts. I'm really trying to contain my anger because Erica tried to contain
it but did succumb to the anger. It's bullshit, like, why the
fuck do you want to have a baby? If this is what the fuck
are you gonna do to it? What the fuck is wrong with you?
Why? Why did you fucking doing why? Why would you fucking do this?
Why? Why? And And I'm pissed off, but the husbands,
because you know what, be a goddamn man and stand up for that baby
and go save her because he could intervene. And what did he do?
He stayed out of it, like he had no part of it, right,
Like what the fuck? I do know that she's gonna get She's gonna
get she's gonna get hers in prison because you know they don't take well to
child Molissa's and child and child killer. So I know she's going to get
hers, and I hope, I hope, I hope she gets good.
I really dont Ari seemed to have it all. She was an educated and
successful teacher before quitting to follow her dream, only to be successful at that
as well. She won a nationally televised cooking show and was awarded twenty five
thousand dollars, not to mention the boost and reputation and publicity. She desperately
wanted a little girl and was given one by the state. She got everything
that she wanted, but couldn't hold on to it. Maybe she harbored a
deep anger behind her comedic facade, or maybe seven kids were just too much
to handle and she snapped. We'll never know. All we know for sure
is that Ari focused her anger almost entirely on little innocent Tory. People just
love your kids, just love your kids. If you're angry, if you're
pissed off about something, go take it off on something else. Babies,
babies are innocent. Just leave the babies alone. A man. The Food
Network removed the entire twentieth season of Worse Cooks in America after the truth about
Ari came out. The biological family of Tori is still trying to make Victoria's
law a reality. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. It was great
to talk to you, and it's great to see you back on social media.
Really, Oh god, stop it. I'm horrible on social media,
but thank you, thank you very much. I don't know what else there
is to say about stories like this. I know we've covered a few of
them, and they almost start to sound like the same story retold over and
over again. There's clearly a problem here in America with child abuse, and
the voices of these innocent children goes mostly silent until it's too late. So
if you suspect child abuse anywhere in your social circle, please call the child
Help National Child Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred four a child or one eight
hundred four two two four four five three. You can also go to Childhelp
Dot org. All calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available
twenty four seven and more than one hundred and seventy languages. The stories we
tell go out there to hundreds of thousands of people, but unless you act,
then it's all for nought. So please remember, children are innocent and
they need our help. So if you know of something going wrong in someone's
home, if you suspect a child is being hurt, please speak up.
Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you here.
If you haven't already, check out Sort and Scale Nightmares. It's available
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