- 3 months ago
- #killerkids
- #kidswhokill
- #newyork
In 1993, Derrick Robie headed out to a summer camp program just a block away, but he never made it there. The unthinkable happens when he encounters another child, who has other plans in mind.
#killerkids #kidswhokill #NewYork
#killerkids #kidswhokill #NewYork
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03Today we are going to take a trip to New York to talk about the case of Eric Smith.
00:07He was only 13 when he was on trial for murder of a 4-year-old boy, Derek Robey.
00:13Kids that kill other kids is always something that baffles anyone
00:16because kids up until a certain age really don't understand the concept of killing and death
00:22unless they come from a really screwed up family situation.
00:25So let's go ahead and dive right into this one.
00:30On the warm summer day of August 2, 1993,
00:34little Derek was getting ready to head out to the summer program at the park.
00:38His mother was having trouble with Derek's baby brother, who was being extra fussy.
00:43Not wanting to miss out on the activities, Derek said,
00:45It's okay, Mom. I'll go by myself.
00:48Normally his mother, Doreen, walks with him to the edge of the driveway and keeps an eye on him,
00:53since it's only a block away at the end of the street at a cul-de-sac and he doesn't have to cross the road.
00:58This would be the first time Derek ever walked there by himself.
01:02She agrees, giving him a kiss and said, I love you.
01:05He said, I love you, Mom.
01:06And he went hopping off down the sidewalk with his lunchbox in hand.
01:10Halfway there, a redhead kid with glasses on his bike approaches little Derek,
01:14telling him that there is a shortcut through the woods and can show him the way.
01:19Derek agrees and both boys head off into the woods.
01:22He had no reason not to trust this kid because he had seen him before at the summer program.
01:27As soon as they got into the woods, the redhead kid grabbed Derek, strangling the boy with his arm,
01:32then laid him on the ground, then took a big rock and a smaller rock and began striking his head with the rocks,
01:38then took the Kool-Aid out of Derek's lunchbox, took a sip, then poured the rest onto Derek's head wound.
01:45He then stripped the boy of his clothes, turned him over, and sexually assaulted his bottom with a stick.
01:50Once that was done, he turned him back around, placing Derek's left shoe near his right hand,
01:56and his right shoe was placed near his left hand.
01:59He took the contents out of the lunchbox, smashing the banana not far from the little boy's body.
02:05Then the redhead kid took off on his bike like nothing happened.
02:09Around 11 a.m., the summer program had to end early due to a thunderstorm rolling in.
02:14Doreen went to pick up her son only to find out that he never arrived.
02:18She got a sick feeling in her stomach that something terrible had happened to her son.
02:23She was almost in a panic, so she called the police.
02:25Within four hours of investigating and searching, they found little Derek's body.
02:30He was only two months shy from celebrating his fifth birthday.
02:38Police were now trying to locate who could have murdered this little boy.
02:41At first, they believed that it could have been an adult,
02:44but Savona is a small town in western New York.
02:47Everyone knows everyone, so it's very unlikely that it could have been a stranger.
02:51Derek was not the kind of kid that got into trouble.
02:53He was described as being all-boy.
02:55He loved playing t-ball, fishing, and riding his bike.
02:58He was also called the unofficial mayor of Savona
03:01because he sat on the corner on his bike and waved at cars as they went by.
03:06That's what everyone in the village remembers about Derek the most.
03:09The first time was four days after the murder when the red-headed boy walked into the police command center
03:15to see if he could help in solving the crime.
03:17His name is Eric Smith, age 13.
03:20He lives across town from where the crime scene is.
03:22At first, they didn't suspect him.
03:24He was very upbeat and very happy.
03:26He likes the fact that he's being talked to and given attention.
03:30He denied ever seeing Derek, but then quickly changed his story.
03:33He says,
03:34The investigator almost fell out of his chair because that puts him right on top of the crime scene.
03:43You've just got to walk across an open field and you're at the crime scene where the murder was.
03:47The investigator pressed in for more information.
03:50He asked him to describe what Derek was wearing.
03:52He said he had a white shirt on and a lunch bag in his hand.
03:56He said it was kind of cool looking, really.
03:57He starts getting emotional when they asked him to tell them where he has last seen Derek.
04:02His voice started cracking.
04:04He put his head down, brings his fist up, and his fists were vibrating a little as he said,
04:09You think I killed him, don't you?
04:11Eric asked to take a break.
04:12His father brings him a glass of Kool-Aid.
04:14He grabs a red Kool-Aid and just throws it on the ground.
04:18At this point, Eric is still not considered a suspect, but they believe he saw something that disturbed him greatly.
04:23The next day, police asked Eric if he could get on his bike and show them where he was when he saw Derek.
04:28But things weren't adding up from what he said versus what he showed them.
04:33It was like he was hiding something, or maybe he was revealing too much, when he first talked to the police.
04:39But Eric's grandfather, Red Wilson, says the family knew Eric was hiding something.
04:44Quote,
04:44In no way did we feel he had done it, so we felt that he knew something.
04:49Maybe somebody had threatened him, and that's why he wouldn't tell.
04:52Unquote.
04:52Eric's neighbors and friends of the family, John and Marlene Heskill, believed the same thing his grandfather said.
05:00One night, Eric was talking to Marlene and asked,
05:03What would happen if it turned out to be a kid?
05:05She replied,
05:06I seriously think they would need some psychiatric help.
05:09He said,
05:09Oh, okay,
05:10and walked away.
05:11He also asked her later about DNA testing and what that would show.
05:16At the time, in 1993, DNA testing was still in its infancy.
05:20It's not as refined as it is nowadays.
05:23More information about the case starts to leak out,
05:25and Marlene was beginning to form her own theory as to who might have done it.
05:29After talking with her friend, she recalls her friend saying,
05:33It has to be a kid who doesn't like bananas,
05:35because whoever killed Derek had squashed the banana.
05:39An adult would have just discarded the banana.
05:41They wouldn't have squashed it and made a mess.
05:43Marlene decided to test this theory.
05:45She went to the store and bought ice cream, nuts, syrup, and bananas.
05:50She brought the stuff home and asked if anyone wants a sundae.
05:53Everyone wanted one, including Eric.
05:55He asked for nuts and syrup on his sundae, and he didn't want a banana.
05:59He said,
06:00No, I don't like bananas.
06:01Seems like the theory was becoming more of a reality.
06:04She told her friend,
06:06Eric doesn't like bananas, and I'm scared.
06:08Five days after he was murdered,
06:10little Derek Robey was buried in his baseball uniform.
06:12Two days after that, on August 8th, Eric finally confesses to killing Derek.
06:18His family sat him down and begged him to tell what he knew.
06:21He looked at his mother and said that he did it,
06:24and kept saying,
06:24I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.
06:26When she asked him why he did it,
06:28he just said,
06:29I don't know, I don't know,
06:31then cried.
06:32The next day, on August 9th, Eric was arrested.
06:38On September 2nd, 1993,
06:40a grand jury indicted 13-year-old Eric Smith on a second-degree murder charge.
06:45Eric would be tried as an adult.
06:47On September 10th, Eric pled not guilty.
06:50The trial began on August of 1994, a year after the murder.
06:54The defense presents Eric as a mentally ill child that he was diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder
07:01after an extensive testing just after he was arrested.
07:04He flies into rages for no real reason and isn't thinking clearly when he has that kind of rage in him.
07:10As a toddler, Eric threw temper tantrums and banged his head on the floor.
07:14He was bullied in school for his red hair, glasses, freckles, and his low-set ears,
07:20which apparently were caused by his mother taking the drug triadone for her epilepsy,
07:25and it can cause birth defects.
07:27He also had developmental delays, speech problems, and was held back in school,
07:32which affected his self-esteem.
07:34Plus, Eric's sister admitted that she was abused by their father,
07:37so maybe he was being abused at home too.
07:40Constant bullying caused Eric to have no friends and became a loner.
07:44When he did try to make friends, there were always kids that were younger than him.
07:48Then he would turn around and bully them.
07:51Eric would spend his time riding around town on his bike alone.
07:54The day of the murder, Eric was told to go home because of his bad behavior at the summer program,
08:00the same one that Derek attended.
08:02Upset by being kicked out of the program,
08:04he left to head home, saw Derek, and did what he did to him out of anger.
08:09They were trying to go for an insanity defense.
08:11The prosecution pushed back, saying that Eric was too young to be diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder,
08:17and Eric knew what he was doing was wrong and should be held fully responsible for his actions under the law.
08:23It was up to the jury to decide Eric's fate.
08:26After hours of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict late at night.
08:30They found Eric Smith guilty of second-degree murder for the murder of Derek Robey.
08:34They also accepted prosecution's argument that Eric was not suffering from any extreme mental disorder
08:40that controlled his actions at the time of the murder.
08:43On November 7, 1993, the judge gave Eric Smith the maximum sentence of nine years to life.
08:49He would serve his time in a juvenile detention facility until he turns 21.
08:54Then he would be transferred to an adult prison.
08:56The first time Eric was up for parole was on June 11, 2002,
09:05but he was denied because he showed little remorse for what he had done.
09:09The second time he was up for parole was on June 8, 2004, and again was denied.
09:15The same year, he gave an interview with the show 48 Hours.
09:19He read out a statement that he said in part,
09:22Hi, my name is Eric Smith.
09:23You first met me 11 years ago.
09:25I know my actions have caused a terrible loss in the Robey family,
09:30and for that I am truly sorry.
09:32Also during his parole hearing was when more of what happened came out
09:36about what he did to Derek and how it made him feel.
09:39He said it made him feel good at the time
09:41because instead of me being hurt, I was hurting someone else.
09:44He was tired of being picked on and bullied.
09:47He said he shut down his feelings after being bullied for so long.
09:50He believed this verbal abuse caused him to take his emotional anger and rage
09:55out on someone who had done nothing to bring on such violence.
09:59He was also asked during the parole hearing that if he wouldn't have been caught,
10:03would he have done it again?
10:04His answer, yes.
10:06Of course, at that parole hearing, he was denied again.
10:09Every time Eric went up for parole, which was every two years,
10:12the Robey family would get a letter about it,
10:15and they would have to relive all that pain over and over again.
10:18Prior to his 2010 parole hearing, Eric Smith was interviewed by CBS news affiliate WENY-TV.
10:26Eric, who was almost 30 years old at the time,
10:29said that his anger at the time of the murder wasn't directed towards Derek at all,
10:34but rather it was directed at the type of boys who used to tease him.
10:38Throughout the interview, he constantly expressed remorse for his actions,
10:41saying at one point, if I could switch places with him and take the grave for him to live,
10:47I'd do it in a second, he said.
10:49Once again, the parole board would turn him down in 2010.
10:53But it seemed like with every parole hearing, Eric had changed for the better.
10:57So on October 5th, 2021, Eric appears in front of the parole board for the 11th time.
11:03Eric tells the parole board he wants to obtain a college education
11:07and plans on working in electrical installation or carpentry.
11:11He also told the parole board that he was engaged.
11:14He said his fiancée was studying to be a lawyer
11:16and wrote him asking about the juvenile justice system.
11:20He says over time, they fell in love with each other.
11:22And so, on October 7th, 2021, Eric Smith was granted parole.
11:27He was scheduled to be released on November 17th, 2021.
11:31But this was delayed due to Eric not having an approved residence.
11:35Weeks after the parole board's decision, a march in a candlelight vigil was held in Savona for Derek.
11:41The community members peacefully protested Eric Smith's release,
11:45while also making sure memories of Derek and his brutal murder would not be forgotten.
11:50Many feared Eric would move back to Savona to live with his mother.
11:54On February 1st, 2022, at the age of 42, Eric is quietly released from prison after being locked up for 28 years.
12:02He now lives in Queens, New York.
12:04He will remain on parole for the rest of his life.
12:09As a result of what happened to their son, the Robey family helped to support Penny's Law,
12:14which would lengthen the prison sentence for children who kill in the state of New York.
12:18It would change the maximum from 9 years to life to 15 years to life,
12:23so that families of murder victims would have a little more time
12:25before having to face the pain of parole hearings every two years.
12:29I believe it passed from what I have read so far, although it was difficult to find articles about it.
12:35When I went to pennyslaw.com, it was up for sale, so I'm not really sure what to make of that.
12:40The site where little Derek was murdered was bulldozed and turned into a baseball field in honor of the little boy who loved to play T-ball so much,
12:48and a statue was erected in his memory, funded by people from all over the country.
12:53The Robey family moved to another house in Savona to get away from the painful memories being so close to the crime scene.
12:59It was just too painful to bear.
13:01They are a little worried about whether or not Eric has truly been rehabilitated,
13:06but now they don't have to face any more parole hearings.
13:09So now, maybe they can finally truly heal from this horrific event.
13:13On his birthday each year, Derek's parents go out and get what Derek calls white ice cream with colorful sprinkles,
13:20which is vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.
13:22If Derek was still alive, he would have turned 34 this October.
13:26This case is very difficult to comprehend, because if it was an adult murdering another adult,
13:36okay, maybe they have some underlying reason for what they did, and we can hate their guts with no issues.
13:41But when it's a child murdering another child, that's a whole other story, because it's not normal.
13:46Children are supposed to be the essence of innocence, even though they can be a handful at times,
13:51especially as a teenager.
13:53To inflict that much pain onto another child, to kill another innocent child like a preschooler
13:59who had done nothing wrong, is nothing short of evil.
14:02Now, the question that always arises with child killers is, can they be rehabilitated?
14:07With the right programs and counseling, it's possible.
14:10Plus, people change over time.
14:11I mean, you weren't the same person as you were when you were 12 or 13 years old.
14:15You had a lot of experiences that molded and shaped you over time to become the adult that you are today.
14:21Now, whether or not this applies to Eric, only time will truly tell.
14:25Hopefully, he won't blow his chance at starting a new life.
14:28So, what are your thoughts?
14:29Do you think that Eric has truly changed?
14:32Do you think he should have been released?
14:33Let me know in the comments down below.
14:35I would love to hear your opinion.
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14:47You never know who I will cover next.
14:49Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
14:52This is Phoenix, signing out.
14:54Have a good evening, and stay safe.
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