How Could You? Hall of Shame-Robert Byrd case-Child Death-UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Highland Park, Michigan, legal guardian Matilda Jane Brown Gardner, 30, and her husband, Randy Steven Gardner, 32, have been charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree child abuse and first-degree torture in the death of their nephew, Robert Byrd.
WATZ reports that the “Murder Charges Against The Couple Carry Mandatory Sentences Of Life Without Parole. The Third Is Punishable By Up To Life In Prison, And The Fourth By Up To 15 Years In Prison. The Gardners Are Being Held In The Wayne County Jail Without Bond Until A May 24th Preliminary Examination.”
CBS Detroit reports “This child, upon presentation to the hospital, was three feet, one inch (tall), and weighed only 24 pounds, had multiple injuries, and the cause of death is starvation,” she told reporters.
Police said Byrd had been physically abused and burned, and had bedsores, bruises and cuts from a razor blade. His body was found on Mother’s Day in a home police said had no beds, just blankets and a few pieces of furniture” after a 911 call was placed by Matilda to report that Robert was not breathing.
MLive reports “Robert’s mother died in of a brain aneurism in 2007, and his father was incarcerated in 2009.
Five other children stayed at the home in the 200 block of California Street but were apparently unhurt, according to the newspaper. One was the 6-year-old brother of Robert, and the others are the Gardners’ four sons. All five children have been removed from the home and placed in the care of Child Protective Services.”
“The most recent statistics from DHS show there were 1,620 complaints of children being neglected or abused in March.
Out of those complaints, 286 cases were confirmed involving 411 victims.
In 2008, the department’s data shows out of 21,085 abuse/neglect cases identified, about 200 cases dealt with an aunt or uncle and 386 involved an adopted parent.”
386 cases involved an adoptive parent!
Highland Park couple charged with murder, torture, abuse in death of 4-year-old nephew
[MLive.com 5/12/11 by Michael Wayland]
Thursday Afternoon state news
[WATZ 5/12/11]
Prosecutor: Couple Starved, Tortured Child
[CBS Detroit 5/11/11]
Update/February 26, 2012:
Hearing moved to June for Highland Park couple accused of murder, torture, abuse of nephew
[M Live 5/24/11 by Michael Wayland] said “The aunt and uncle of a 4-year-old Highland Park boy who starved to death on Mother’s Day made a brief appearance in Wayne County 30th today.
Matilda Jane Brown Gardner, 30, and her husband, Randy Steven Gardner, 32, waived their right to a preliminary examination within 14 days of their arraignment, which occurred May 12.
The Gardner’s lawyer, Robert Kinney, said he needed more time to study the evidence and prepare for the hearing.
Chief Judge Brigette R. Officer accepted the 14-day waiver and moved the examination to 9 a.m. June 10.
The Gardners, who will remain in jail without bond, arecharged with first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree child abuse and first-degree torture in the death of their nephew, Robert Byrd.
The couple stood in the corner of Officer’s courtroom for about five minutes, wearing dark green jail-issued uniforms, as she asked questions about the request for adjournment.
During the couple’s arraignment hearing earlier this month, when asked if Matilda Gardner understood the charges, she replied, “yes, but I didn’t do it.”
The Gardeners took legal custody of Byrd after his mother died of a brain aneurism in 2007, and his father was incarcerated in 2009.
Five other children stayed at the home in the 200 block of California Street but were apparently unhurt, according to reports. One was the 6-year-old brother of Robert, and the others are the Gardners’ four sons.
Nearly 300 people gathered over the weekend to pay their last respects to Byrd, whose death from starvation on May 8 was ruled a homicide .”
Medical expert: Highland Park boy, 4, who starved to death was bound by wrists, repeatedly beaten
[M Live 6/10/11 by Michael Wayland] said “”This child was tortured and beaten,” said Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt, who testified in Highland Park’s 30th District Court involving the death of Robert Byrd last month.
Schmidt, who conducted the boy’s autopsy, said Byrd was bound by the wrists and beaten over a long period of time.
Randy Steven Gardner, 32, and his wife, Matilda Jane Brown Gardner, 30, are both charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree child abuse and first-degree torture in the death of Byrd. Both were in court today, but did not testify.
Byrd died from starvation May 8 in the couple’s Highland Park home, according to officials.
During the nearly three-hour examination, graphic testimony and autopsy photos were presented to Judge Brigette Officer.
Schmidt said the photos, which Officer called “disturbing,” showed bruises, healed scars and open wounds on more than 90 percent of Byrd’s body.
Court-appointed defense lawyers Robert Kinney and Lillian Diallo argued for a number of charges, including torture, be dropped, but Officer denied their requests.
Schmidt and Highland Park Police Officer Paul Thomas, who is in charge of the case, were the only two witnesses to testify today.
Thomas, who interviewed the Gardners two times each following their arrests on May 8, read transcripts from two of his interviews as evidence. In one interview, Thomas said Matilda Gardner said her husband beat the boy with a belt and an electric extension cord.
“Randy whipped the kids with extension cords,” Thomas said Matilda Gardner told him.
Thomas said Randy Gardner was “not overly upset” during an interview a day after his arrest.
Thomas said Randy Gardner told him that the injuries to Byrd must have come from his father, Anthony Byrd Sr., who was jailed for nine months in 2009 for felonious assault.”
“Kinney and Diallo suggested that Robert Byrd suffered from sickle cell anemia and asthma, which could have contributed to the boy weighing less than 25 pounds when he died.
Schmidt said Robert Byrd was the right height for his age, but about 10 pounds under weight.
In interviews with Thomas, both Gardners said they fed Robert Byrd at least three times a day — citing primarily fast food meals. Both denied starving the boy.
“I fed him along with everyone else,” Thomas said Matilda Gardner told him.
Both Gardners remained primarily silent during today’s examination. Matilda Gardener for a majority of the examination, held what appeared to be a folded up bundle of white papers in her hands.
The Gardeners, who will remain in jail without bond, took legal custody of Robert Byrd after his mother died of a brain aneurism in 2007, and his father was incarcerated.
The couple is due back in court 9 a.m. June 17.
Five other children stayed at the home in the 200 block of California Street but were apparently unhurt, according to reports. One was the 6-year-old brother of Robert Byrd, and the others are the Gardners’ four sons.”
Wayne County | Graphic details emerge in death of Highland Park boy [Michigan Weekly 6/10/11 by Doug Guthire/Detroit News] adds “Highland Park Police Officer Paul Thomas also read a statement in court today that he said Matilda Gardner volunteered after her arrest, claiming her husband beat the boy with a belt and an electric extension cord. She said she tried to stop him, but that the boy angered her husband when he wet himself.
“Randy would beat him with a belt because of it,” Thomas said she told him.
Matilda Garner told Thomas the wounds on the boy’s wrists weren’t caused by binding, but had come from rough play with other children. Thomas said police found handcuffs inside the house.”
” Both adults insisted in interviews with police that Robert had been fed and ate fast food and chicken soup in the past week with the five other children in the house. Both denied the boy had been deprived of food.
“That’s impossible. I fed him along with everyone else,” Thomas said Matilda Gardner told him.
Schmidt testified that the boy’s height was normal, but his weight of slightly more than 20 pounds was only about half of what should have been expected.
Schmidt also described 14 graphic autopsy photos that showed, bruises, healed scars and open infected wounds over 90 percent of the body. There were open and infected wounds around the boy’s wrists where Schmidt said he had been bound. Adhesive tape was still wrapped around the red swollen wrists. Schmidt said the boy had signs of longterm exposure to urine and feces.
Schmidt said examination of internal organs showed evidence that the boy had suffered from longterm stress and physical abuse, perhaps over a period of months.”
” The murder charges carry mandatory life sentences without parole. Both have been held in the Wayne County Jail without bond since May 8, the day the boy was found dead. ”
Uncle Ruled Competent For Trial In Torture Case [CBS Detroit 8/25/11] says “A Wayne County judge has ruled that a Highland Park man accused in the starvation death of his nephew is mentally competent to stand trial. But the defendant, Randy Gardner, is asking for an independent psychiatric exam.
The 32-year-old man and his 30-year-old wife, Matilda, are charged with murdering and torturing four-year old Robert Byrd, who was in their care.
Police said Byrd had been physically abused and burned, and had bedsores, bruises and cuts from a razor blade. His body was found on Mother’s Day in a home police said had no beds, just blankets and a few pieces of furniture.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Byrd was 3’1” and weighed only 24 pounds.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has said it’s been very difficult taking in the facts of this case, which she described at “severe child abuse.”
Another pre-trial conference is set for November 11. The trial is scheduled to begin November 29 [2011].”
Wayne County inmate search shows Randy Gardner as remanded as of 5/12/11 docket 1101152FY.
Update 2: “A Highland Park woman accused of binding, beating and starving her 4-year-old nephew to death is considering a plea-bargain offered by Wayne County’s Prosecutor to avoid going to trial on charges that could put her in prison for life without parole.
Matilda Gardner, 31, will return to Wayne Circuit Court next week with her decision on whether to accept the deal that mirrors a bargain accepted earlier this week by her husband, Randy Gardner, 33. The agreement will send Randy Gardner to prison for at least 30 years.
Both had been scheduled to go on trial this week on charges of torture, child abuse and first-degree murder for the May 8, 2011, death of Robert Byrd.
The boy’s emaciated and bruised body was taken from the couple’s Highland Park home on Mother’s Day. The youth’s 6-year-old brother and the Gardner’s own four sons were taken into state custody in reportedly good physical condition.
Robert and his brother had been placed in Gardner’s custody after the 2009 death of their mother and imprisonment of their father.
An autopsy showed the victim’s body had bruises, healed scars and open infected wounds over 90 percent of his body. There was adhesive tape around the raw flesh on his wrists. His skin had signs of long-term exposure to urine and feces. Examination of internal organs showed evidence of long-term stress and physical abuse. He weighed just 22 pounds, 10 to 20 pounds under normal weight for his age and height.
Police, who found a pair of handcuffs in the house, said they were told by Matilda Gardner during questioning that her husband beat the child with a belt and an electric cord when he wet himself. Both parents insisted that the youth was fed the same as the other children.
Randy Gardner pleaded guilty Monday to torture, child abuse and second-degree murder. His deal calls for a sentence of at least 30 years and up to 60. He is slated for sentencing March 21 by Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway.
The prosecutor’s office made an identical offer to Matilda Gardner, who did not immediately accept the deal. The judge, who has kept both husband and wife in jail since their arrests last spring, ordered the woman returned to court on March 9. She will be ordered trial if she accepts the offer.
Connie Brown, sister of both Matilda Gardner and the victim’s dead mother Theresa Brown, said the family is satisfied with the plea offer and grateful to the prosecutor’s office for it’s work on the case. Brown said Gardner’s children have been in the care of Randy Gardner’s family.
“I just don’t think she has any choice but to accept that plea deal,” Brown said. “Our first concern was with the welfare of the rest of the children. After that it was clear that they were going to have to go to prison. I think the family just wants this to be over.”
Woman accused of starving, torturing child to death weighs plea deal
[The Detroit News 3/1/12 by Doug Guthrie]
Update 3: Randy Steven Gardner “was sentenced this morning to a minimum of 30 years in prison for second-degree murder and a minimum of 10 years each for torture and first-degree child abuse. ” The sentences will run concurrently.
“Robert died May 8 [2011] of starvation in what authorities called one of the most horrific suspected cases of child abuse they had ever seen.”
“According to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s report, Robert died of starvation and likely suffered long-term abuse. The boy had skin erosions and bruises on about 90% of his body.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Chief Pathologist Dr. Carl Schmidt testified during a preliminary examination in June that Robert’s injuries likely stemmed from being beaten and bound over time, as well as chemical burns from sitting in urine and feces. Food, Schmidt said, had probably been withheld from the boy for months. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lora Weingarden explained to the court that Robert’s father, Anthony Byrd Sr., did not know about the abuse because he had no contact with his children while he was incarcerated.
After leaving prison, Byrd attempted to get in contact with his children, but “the defendant moved around.” “No child should die in such an inhumane, uncivilized way,” Weingarden said. Gardner told the court that while he understood Robert died, he did not understand the child’s medical history.
“Robert was thin and he was little and I only disciplined him when it was needed,” Gardner said. “I explained to them that I do the best I can.”
Gardner’s wife Matilda Brown Gardner is to stand trial May 16 in connection with Robert’s death. ”
Highland Park man sentenced to prison in ‘horrific’ child torture, starvation murder case
[Detroit Free Press 4/4/12 by Melanie D. Scott]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update 4:“Matilda Brown Gardner began crying as her attorney, Robert Kinney, told a jury Wednesday that she was not responsible for the abuse that led to the death of her 4-year-old nephew and that she, too, was a victim of abuse.Kinney said it was Brown Gardner’s husband, Randy Gardner, who beat, handcuffed and withheld food from Robert Byrd and his brother Anthony Jr., 7 — which eventually led to Robert’s death from malnutrition and neglect in May 2011.
Kinney addressed the jury during his closing argument in a trial against Brown Gardner of Highland Park, who faces charges of first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder and first-degree child abuse in Robert’s death. The trial was held before Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway in Wayne County Circuit Court.”
“Brown Gardner, Kinney said, was afraid to leave her husband, whom she had known since she was a teenager, and was once slapped for questioning him.
“Randy Gardner was a monster,” Kinney said.
But Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lora Weingarden told jurors in her closing argument that Brown Gardner aided her husband by not reporting the abuse or stepping in to prevent it.
Days before Robert’s death, Weingarden said, Brown Gardner spoke to a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Detroit and said Robert had flu-like symptoms.
“She sees he’s dying and calls Children’s Hospital, lies about her name because she’s seen what the child’s body looks like and she knew she would be in trouble,” Weingarden said. “She wanted that child to die.”
Weingarden also told jurors that the Gardners’ own four boys were the appropriate weight and height for their ages, but Robert and Anthony Jr. were not.
A chart prepared by Weingarden detailed how Robert was born weighing 3.69 pounds but was up to 19 pounds when his mother took him to a doctor’s appointment less than a year later.
Weingarden said medical records revealed Brown Gardner took Robert to the hospital to be treated for asthma in April 2010 and on that visit, he was 28 pounds and had multiple loop marks on his body. Doctors failed to report the marks and weight to Children’s Protective Services.
Robert was 23.14 pounds at the time of his death. An average boy his age should weigh about 40 pounds, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Everyone knows you have to feed a child or there will be severe medical issues,” Weingarden said.
The jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon.”
Highland Park woman says it’s her husband’s fault 4-year-old was starved, tortured to death
Jury convicts aunt in death of nephew
[Detroit Free Press 5/25/12 by Melanie D. Scott, Chastity Pratt Dawsey, and The Associated Press]
She will be sentenced on June 12, 2012.
Aunt Convicted Of Murder, Torture In ‘Unspeakable’ Child Abuse Case
[CBS Local Detroit 5/24/12]
Update 5: “Matilda Brown Gardner, 30, of Highland Park stood before Wayne County Circuit Judge Cynthia Gray Hathaway and showed little emotion as she was also sentenced to 225 months to 60 years for torture and 95 months to 15 years for first-degree child abuse.
The sentences are to run concurrently.”
”
During closing arguments at the trial last month, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lora Weingarden said Brown Gardner, using a fake name, spoke to a nurse at Children’s Hospital in Detroit and said Robert had flu-like symptoms.
Medical records introduced during the trial revealed Brown Gardner took Robert to the hospital to be treated for asthma in April 2010 and he weighed 28 pounds and had multiple loop marks on his body. Doctors failed to report the marks to Child Protective Services.
Robert was 23.14 pounds when he died. An average 4-year-old boy should weigh about 40 pounds, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Why did she do this?” asked Anthony Byrd Sr., Robert’s father, before the sentencing. “My son didn’t deserve this. You have four kids and none of your kids were starved or tortured.”
Brown Gardner declined to speak before the sentencing.”
Highland Park woman sentenced to life for death of nephew
[Detroit Free Press 6/28/12 by Melanie Scott Dorsey]
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