How Could You? Hall of Shame-Rilya Wilson case-Missing Child 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 Miami, Florida, though Rilya Wilson has been missing from foster care since 2000, her foster mother’s roommate Geralyn Graham will go on trial for murder on October 11, 2011. She is accused of kidnapping, abusing and smothering her. The grand jury in March 2005 indicted Graham on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. A hearing earlier this year took the death penalty off the table. The prosecutors are seeking life in prison.

Rilya was four years old at the time she went missing in December 2000.

“Born to a drug-addicted mother, Rilya was placed in a foster home in the care of Pamela Graham. Geralyn Graham, no relation, lived with her in Kendall.”

“Over the years, news reports, court documents and an investigation into Rilya’s disappearance have included allegations that she was tied to a bed and locked in a small laundry room, kept in a dog cage, and often bore bruises, scratches and other injuries.

The indictment alleges that Rilya was either suffocated or beaten to death sometime in December 2000.

When Graham was indicted by a grand jury in March 2005, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said, “she basically broke down and told someone in the jail details about Rilya Wilson, including how she killed her.”

That someone is believed to be career criminal Robin Lunceford, 48, who once shared a holding cell with Graham.

Lunceford told prosecutors that Graham admitted smothering Rilya with a pillow because the child insisted on wearing an “evil” Cleopatra costume instead of dressing as an angel for Halloween.

Graham said she buried Rilya’s body near a lake, Lunceford told investigators.

“She was in a whisper voice, like she couldn’t say it loud, she just said it like, whispered to me, ‘I killed it,”‘ Lunceford told prosecutors in a sworn statement.

Though she received a life sentence in 2005, this March Lunceford’s sentence was reduced to 10 years. In exchange she agreed to cooperate in the Graham prosecution.”

“Graham, now 65, has denied harming the child. She told investigators that the last time she saw Rilya was in January 2001, when a woman claiming to be from the DCF took the girl for a medical exam.

But DCF workers did not learn that Rilya was missing until April 2002.

Shortly after Rilya’s disappearance, Geralyn Graham was arrested on unrelated charges. Convicted of using a friend’s Social Security number to buy a sport utility vehicle, she has been in jail ever since.”

Trial nears for woman charged with killing Rilya Wilson
[Sun-Sentinel 9/11/11 by Mike Cleary]

Update: After delay of October 11 trial due to the defendant’s attorney’s illness, a trial date of March 26, 2012 has been set.

“The murder trial in the case of missing Florida foster child Rilya Wilson has been delayed indefinitely because of an attorney’s illness.

Rilya Wilson Murder Trial Delayed
[NBC Miami 10/3/11 by Associated Press]

“A trial date has finally been set in the murder case of little Rilya Wilson.

The 4-year-old foster child disappeared in South Florida in 2000, sparking a shakeup at the state’s child welfare agency.

Wilson’s foster mother Geralyn Graham will go on trial March 26. Graham maintains her innocence in Rilya’s death.

Rilya’s body was never found, and authorities have little physical evidence. They aren’t even sure whether Geralyn Graham is the defendant’s name or one of her 47 aliases.

It took 15 months for officials to discover Rilya was missing. Florida’s child welfare agency has been overhauled but is still accused of lax oversight. ”

Trial set in Rilya Wilson murder case
[The Miami Herlad 11/23/11 by Associated Press]
Also, see The Charley Project Files on Rilya here.

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update 2: “More than a decade after foster child Rilya Wilson’s disappearance shook up  the state’s child welfare system, the caregiver accused of killing the girl is  finally set to go on trial in a highly circumstantial case hinging on jail  inmates who say they heard the woman confess.

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of Geralyn Graham, which  is expected to last about eight weeks. Graham, 66, has pleaded not guilty to  first-degree murder and has written letters to judges insisting she is innocent.  She faces life in prison if convicted.

“I’ve never hurt a soul in my life,” she said in one letter.

Rilya’s body has never been found. Police have no witnesses to any killing  and scant physical evidence. The crux of the case are alleged confessions Graham  made to fellow jail inmates that she killed Rilya and buried her body near a  lake.

“It is always problematic for the government when it has to build a case on  jailhouse snitches,” said Robert Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern  University who has followed the case over the years. “In the end, the government  may lose, particularly if Graham can present a reasonable alternative  explanation for Rilya’s disappearance.”

Rilya was born Sept. 29, 1996, to a homeless cocaine addict. The girl’s name  was an acronym for “remember I love you always.” She was taken into state  custody when she was less than 2 months old.

The girl was last seen in 2001 living in a home shared by Geralyn Graham and  Pamela Graham, who are not related. When it was discovered in 2002 that she was  no longer living there, the Grahams claimed a Department of Children and  Families worker had taken her for medical tests and never returned.

An investigation showed that a DCF caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, did not make  required monthly visits to the Grahams’ home for more than a year, even though  she was filing reports and telling judges the girl was fine. Muskelly was  eventually placed on five years’ probation after pleading guilty to official  misconduct for falsifying time sheets.

The case had far broader ramifications, leading to the resignation of  then-DCF director Kathleen Kearney and launching of several reforms, including a  new missing child tracking system linked to the Florida Department of Law  Enforcement. State lawmakers also made it illegal to falsify records of visits  between child welfare workers and children in the agency’s care.

In addition, legislators required DCF to contract out casework to private  organizations, which experts said has contributed to a 28 percent drop in the  overall number of kids in care since Rilya disappeared. The state pays those  organizations around a half billion dollars a year.

“That was the event that drove privatization, for all practical purposes, and  truly changed case management,” said current DCF Secretary David Wilkins.

Caseworkers are now required to visit a child monthly and carry GPS units  that stamp a date and location to make sure every child is accounted for. But it  wasn’t until last July that caseworkers were required to go beyond simply taking  a picture at those visits and get critical updates about how the child is doing  in school, whether they have any medical concerns or how they are faring  socially in the home.

Former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence, who chaired a task force that  examined the agency’s failings in Rilya’s case, said the case did lead to  important reforms, but problems remain.

In 2011, 10-year-old Nubia Barahona was found dead in her adoptive father’s  pickup truck. Subsequent investigation revealed that she was routinely abused  and that signs were missed by her caseworkers. Her adopted parents have pleaded  not guilty to murder charges and could get the death penalty if convicted.

“At heart here is people who didn’t want to be bothered by the system. It is  beyond a tragic situation,” Lawrence said of both cases. “You still need  compassion, decency and common sense.”

In Graham’s case, the star prosecution witness will be Robin Lunceford, a  career criminal who had been sentenced to life behind bars before revealing  Graham’s purported confession. Lunceford’s sentence was reduced to 10 years  after she came forward. She is now scheduled for release in March 2014.

Lunceford told detectives that Graham, whom she had befriended, was talking  to her from an adjacent cell and “broke down, said she couldn’t take it anymore,  that she had killed the little girl and buried her near her home.” Lunceford  said Graham told her she smothered Rilya with a pillow because the girl insisted  on wearing a Cleopatra costume for Halloween rather than going as an angel. A  second inmate also will testify that Graham confessed to the killing in another  conversation.

Other prosecution evidence centers on allegations of abuse, including claims  that Graham tied Rilya to a bed or locked her in a small laundry room as  punishment for misbehavior. There were also reports by friends and acquaintances  that the girl was frequently seen with bruises and scratches.

Michael Grieco, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor now in private  practice, said that testimony may help build a circumstantial case against  Graham.

“The prosecutors should and will focus on the alleged history of abuse,” he  said.

Graham has a long history of fraud and other crimes. When she was arrested,  police found that she has used 47 aliases and was carrying 10 different driver’s  licenses. That history was somehow missed by a DCF background check.

“Her whole life was a scam. We still don’t know who she was, even after she  was fingerprinted,” said former Miami-Dade detective Gregory Scott, who retired  in 2004 and was an early investigator in Rilya’s case.

Pamela Graham, who remains charged with child neglect, has been cooperating  with prosecutors and is expected to testify. In sworn statements, she has  insisted she does not know what happened to Rilya.

Ultimately, according to Nova law professor Jarvis, the jury will have to be  convinced that there’s no other explanation for Rilya’s death in order to  convict Graham.

“Other than foul play, is there any reasonable explanation for the missing  person’s disappearance?” he said. “Assuming the answer is no, is there any  reasonable doubt that someone other than the accused is the perpetrator?”

 

A decade on, murder trial to begin in case of Fla. missing foster child Rilya Wilson

[FOX News 11/4/12 by Associated Press]

“More than 100 potential jurors answered questions in an attempt to seat a jury, a process that likely will take up to two weeks.

Rilya Wilson’s name was an acronym for “remember I love you always.” Born to a homeless cocaine addict she was taken from her parents and placed in a state run foster home when she was just 2 months old. Then, before her fifth birthday, she disappeared and was presumed dead.

“Someone other than the counselor assigned to this case came to that home, removed the child, apparently stating that there was a need for neurological, psychological and other evaluations of the  child,” said Charles Auslander, DCF District Administrator.

That someone, said the state, is Gerlyn Graham, the caretaker who is now charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and kidnapping. Prosecutors allege she locked Rilya in a cage after taking her from her official guardian.

“We’re going to find out that there’s a lot of distance between the pillar, the charge and post at the end of this case,” said attorney Scott Sakin.

Police have no witnesses to the killing and very little hard evidence to go on.

The state will rely heavily on alleged confessions Graham made to other jail inmates stating that she killed Rilya and buried her near a lake.”

Trial underway in Rilya Wilson murder case

[Local 10 11/5/12]

Update 3: “Final members of the 12-person panel were selected Tuesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. There are also five alternates. Opening statements are scheduled for next Monday [November 26, 2012] for the estimated five-week trial.”

Rilya Wilson: Jury set in Florida missing girl murder trial

[WTSP 11/20/ by Associated Press]

“Rilya’s disappearance — her body has never been found — sparked massive upheaval and reform at the Department of Children & Families, leading to a series of unbridled public hearings, a scathing report, legislative changes and a Miami visit by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Several DCF employees were fired, the top Miami administrator resigned and Secretary Kathleen Kearney left the agency months later. Rilya’s disappearance prompted cries for agency “transparency” more than any tragedy before it — cries that echo today.

It led to a criminal probe that will culminate Monday with opening statements in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

Graham, 66, is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and multiple counts of child abuse with great bodily harm. She faces life in prison if convicted. Graham, confined in the Miami-Dade jail since October 2002, has long maintained her innocence.

The trial, in front of Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez, is expected to last longer than a month.

Without a body, forensic evidence, eyewitnesses or confessions, the state faces unusual challenges. The prosecution’s thrust will likely focus on Graham’s inconsistent accounts of Rilya’s whereabouts — and a jailhouse informant who claims the woman confessed to smothering the child.

Rilya was born to a crack-addicted mother, and by 2000, was living with Graham and her domestic partner, Pamela Graham, under DCF supervision.

Her name was an acronym: Remember I Love You Always.

The agency did not realize the girl had disappeared until April 2002, more than one year after she was last seen. The reason: Her case worker, whose job was to check on the girl regularly, had not bothered to do so — and instead falsified numerous reports.

Changing stories

During a Christmas 2000 get-together at the Graham home, friends wondered about Rilya’s whereabouts. Graham claimed a “Spanish” friend had taken the little girl on a road trip.

When DCF finally became aware that the child wasn’t in the home, Graham claimed that an unidentified worker with the agency — “a tall, heavy-set, light-skinned woman with an accent” — came to pick up Rilya. A second woman came later to retrieve toys and clothes, Graham said.

To find the mystery worker, detectives printed out ID-badge photos of DCF employees to show Graham. Many searches for the girl also fizzled.

As detectives got varying versions of Rilya’s whereabouts from people who had talked to Graham, the case morphed from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation.

Jurors are also likely to hear from two key witnesses, one of them Pamela Graham, no relation.

Pamela Graham told police that Geralyn hit Rilya with switches, confined her to the laundry room and tied her hands to the railing of the child’s bed with plastic “flex cuffs.” A friend of the pair also told investigators that Graham borrowed a dog cage in which she locked Rilya when she misbehaved.

As for the social worker tale, Pamela Graham said Geralyn “concocted the story and advised her whenever anyone inquired about Rilya to just say that DCF took her,” the case’s lead detective said in a deposition.

But Pamela Graham told officials she never knew what happened to Rilya, who would be 16 today. She agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of child neglect and serve as a state witness against Geralyn. She has not yet been sentenced.

The other chief witness would be jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford, who claimed Geralyn Graham confessed to her that she smothered the child and dumped the body in a South Miami-Dade canal.

Testimony by jailhouse informants is often of questionable value, but Lunceford’s credibility may be particularly shaky — she also gave information to Miami-Dade prosecutors about fellow inmates in two other high-profile murder cases, but was dropped as a state witness in both cases after she stopped cooperating.

For several years, both Frederica Wilson and Rilya’s younger sister — the congresswoman befriended her after the girl was adopted by a local family — believed Rilya was still alive, somewhere. For Rilya’s sister, Rodericka, it was a childhood act of faith.

For the lawmaker, it was a mixture of both faith and hope: Perhaps Graham, who moved from her modest home into a larger one around the time Rilya vanished, sold the cute little girl for a large sum of money?

But as Graham languished in jail year after year, initially on credit card fraud charges and then on the murder rap, Wilson lost hope. Had the child actually been sold, Graham surely would have said so by now, Wilson reasoned, if only to clear herself of murder charges.

Still, Wilson says, she kept her awful conclusions to herself. “I didn’t have the heart to tell [Rodericka]; no, I didn’t think Rilya was alive.”

A turning point

To this day, Wilson keeps pictures of the lost little girl in her office. Visitors ask if the child is hers. “I never had anything affect me the way the disappearance of Rilya affected my life,” the lawmaker said. “It just torments me.”

The child’s disappearance affected many that way, and some say, led to significant changes in the way Florida protects children.

Social workers across the nation still study the case as a cautionary tale for what not to do in child protection.

“Rilya Wilson was a turning point in child welfare,” former DCF Secretary George Sheldon, now an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told The Herald two years ago.

In the wake of Rilya’s disappearance, child welfare administrators developed a real-time system for tracking and reporting on missing children, created a specialized missing-kids unit at DCF headquarters in Tallahassee, beefed up requirements for case workers (including mandatory foster home visits every 30 days), and implemented fingerprinting and photographs for all children entering foster care. While in the Legislature, Frederica Wilson passed a law requiring youngsters in foster care to be in daycare to increase their community visibility, and lawmakers made it a crime to falsify child welfare records.

The statewide advocacy group Florida’s Children First — which included a large group of lawyers and children’s advocates — also formed in the scandal’s aftermath, and Coral Springs attorney Andrea Moore became the group’s second director.

“Child advocates from all over the state felt we needed to do something. We could not have any more Bradleys or Kaylas or Rilyas. It had to stop,” said Moore, referring to Bradley McGee, who was fatally plunged head-first into a toilet for soiling himself after being returned by the state to abusive parents, and Kayla McKean, whose father beat her to death following multiple reports from teachers that her dad was horribly abusing her.

In the succeeding years, the state has been racked by new tragedies: Gabriel Myers, who hanged himself in 2007 at a Broward foster home, and Nubia Barahona, whose adopted parents are charged with torturing and killing her following multiple reports to the state that her life was in danger — both of which also sparked statewide hearings and hand-wringing reports.

“Advocates get tired,” said Moore, who retired from the group after five years. “It’s such an uphill battle.”   ”

A decade after little girl vanished, Rilya Wilson’s foster mom faces trial

[Miami Herald 11/24/12 by Carol Marbin Miller and David Ovalle]

“Prosecutors are relying heavily on testimony from two jail inmates including Robin Lunceford who claimed Graham confessed to them that she smothered the child and disposed of the body near a lake.

Lunceford will be a key prosecution witness.

Wilson was given to Graham and her lover in 2000.  Her disappearance wasn’t noticed by state child welfare officials for 15 months. Her body has never been found.

An investigation showed that a DCF caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, did not make required monthly visits to the Grahams’ home for more than a year, even though she was filing reports and telling judges the girl was fine. Muskelly was eventually placed on five years’ probation after pleading guilty to official misconduct for falsifying time sheets.

The case had far broader ramifications, leading to the resignation of then-DCF director Kathleen Kearney and launching of several reforms.

Caseworkers are now required to visit a child monthly and carry GPS units that stamp a date and location to make sure every child is accounted for. But it wasn’t until last July that caseworkers were required to go beyond simply taking a picture at those visits and get critical updates about how the child is doing in school, whether they have any medical concerns or how they are faring socially in the home.

State lawmakers also made it illegal to falsify records of visits between child welfare workers and children in the agency’s care.”

Opening Statements Monday In Rilya Wilson Murder Trial

[CBS Miami 11/25/12 by Associated Press]

“Prosecutor Joshua Weintraub told the jury Graham smothered Wilson after months of abuse, dumped her body in a canal in southwest Miami-Dade and then elaborately covering the murder up until she confessed to fellow jail inmates.

It’s believed Wilson disappeared in late 2000 or early 2001, but the Department of Children and Families did not notice she was gone until April 2002.  When the state discovered Rilya missing, Graham claimed a DCF worker had taken the girl away from her.

“A manhunt, a child hunt, started,” said Weintraub, “It started out in South Florida, it spread across Florida and across country.”

State investigators suspected Graham.  Her live in lover, Pamela Graham, told investigators that Graham beat the child and locked her in a laundry room.

Jailhouse snitch Robin Lunceford is expected to testify that Geralyn Graham told her she killed Rilya because the little girl was evil.

“She referred to her as ‘it’ because the child didn’t want to wear an angel outfit, she referred to her as ‘it’ because she thought Rilya was a slut and a seductress,” Weintraub told the jury.

Other witnesses are expected to testify that Graham would tie Rilya to her bed with flex cuffs and sometimes lock her in a dog cage.

Graham’s defense attorney, Scott Sakin, told the jury that Rilya’s body was never located in the canal where Graham allegedly dumped it.

“That body was not found because there was no body there,” said Sakin.

Sakin also focused his statement on the DCF worker who failed to regularly check on the girl and falsified reports for more than a year.

“Rilya was abandoned by the Department of Children and Families shortly after she was born, they didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” said Sakin who added that Rilya wasn’t a poster child for abuse, but rather one for neglect by DCF.

“It was the most devastating thing I’ve ever experienced and it still bothers me, even today,” said Congresswoman Frederica Wilson who attended the first day of the trial.

Rep. Wilson is not related to the little girl, but said she will never forget Rilya’s smiling face.

“I can not understand how a little baby girl, 4-years-old, can just vanish from the face of the earth, and no one, no one, has any answers,” Rep. Wilson said.

More than a decade later, many are hoping the answers they are looking for will come out in Graham’s criminal trial.

The Wilson case sparked a massive shake-up at the Department of Children and Families. Several employees were fired and policies were changed.

DCF’s track record has not been spotless since then, but Wilson said many improvements have been made.

“I can’t say we’re perfect. But I can say, we’re not as bad off as we were,” Rep. Wilson said Sunday, a day before the trial was set to begin.

If convicted, Graham faces life in prison.”

Rilya Wilson Murder Trial Underway A Decade After Her Death

[CBS Miami 11/26/12]

” Miami-Dade County judge has denied a defense motion in the trial of Geralyn Graham for the murder of Rilya Wilson after confusion over a lapsed legal license was settled.

It was learned late Monday that Assistant State Attorney Joshua Weintraub was taken off the case because he let his Florida Bar license lapse. The discovery of Weintraub’s lapsed license came to light after a Miami Herald reader posted a comment about it on the newspaper’s website.”

“Also Tuesday, retired DCF supervisor Willie Harris wrapped up his testimony. On the stand, he told the jury he removed Rilya from the home of Pam Kendrick after Geralyn Graham called DCF saying Rilya was being kept in filthy conditions.

Graham wanted Rilya moved into her house where Rilya’s little sister, Rodericka, was living. Harris said he took Rilya after an irate Kendrick refused to allow him to inspect her house.

“The information that I received indicated that the child was living in deplorable conditions which I could not verify,” said Harris on the stand.

Harris admitted no home inspection or evaluation was done when Rilya was given over to Graham who is accused of abusing the girl for months before finally smothering her, and then lying to child welfare workers who failed to discover the girl had been missing for more than a year, according to prosecutors.

University of Miami faculty member Karen Throckmorton testified that she met with Geralyn Graham and Pamela Graham on several occasions and that the she served as a shelter home until DCF could find a permanent home for Rodericka in 1999.

That was before Rodericka was placed with Pamela Graham as her foster parent.

Lily Mae Tuff, a co-worker of Pamela Graham’s who was invited to family functions, took the stand after Throckmorton. She testified on several occasions when she asked where Rilya was Geralyn Graham would say the she was “on punishment.”

Rilya’s case led to new laws and a massive shake-up at Florida’s child welfare agency after she vanished in 2000. Authorities long suspected caretaker Graham in Rilya’s disappearance, but didn’t charge her until 2005 when prosecutors said she confessed to inmate and jailhouse snitch Robin Lunceford while serving time on an unrelated fraud charge.

Lunceford is expected to testify that Graham told her she killed Rilya because the little girl was evil.

Graham is on trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse. She faces life in prison if convicted.

During opening statements Monday, Graham’s attorney raised the possibility that Rilya could still be alive because her body has not been found. Attorney Scott Sakin suggested Rilya could’ve been relocated to a new home and lost in a system that has a history of caseworker incompetence. Sakin also reminded jurors that jailhouse snitches have much to gain for helping out prosecutors.

“Is there any evidence at all that this child is dead?” Sakin said. “Where is the body? We don’t have to prove that she’s alive. They have to prove that this child is dead.”

Prosecutors said Graham confessed to killing Rilya, who would be 16 now, because she believed the girl was evil and possessed by demons. Other witnesses will testify that Graham repeatedly lied about the girl’s whereabouts after she disappeared, Assistant State Attorney Joshua Weintraub said.

“She snuffed the life out of this child,” said Weintraub, holding a large photo of the smiling 4-year-old.

Weintraub told them jury that Rilya was frequently punished harshly, including being kept in a dog cage and tied to a bed with plastic restraints.

“Rilya was always in timeout. Always being punished,” Weintraub said.

Graham, 66, uses a walker to move around in court. She has long insisted she is innocent and claimed a Department of Children and Families worker took Rilya from her Miami-area home one day and never returned the girl.

Rilya and a younger sister were both given over to state care because their drug-addicted, frequently homeless mother could not care for them. Rilya’s name is an acronym for “remember I love you always” given by her birth mother.

The girl’s disappearance led to resignations at DCF, including several high-level positions, when it was discovered that a caseworker was falsifying reports about the girl’s well-being and that supervisors took little action. The case also led to a new missing child tracking system in Florida, approval of a privatized system of child casework and tougher laws against falsifying child welfare reports.

Pamela Grahamis also expected to testify in a plea deal with prosecutors that will likely allow her to avoid jail.

The key to the case, both sides agree, is the testimony of career criminal Robin Lunceford, who befriended Graham in jail. Lunceford claims that Graham, referring to Rilya as “it,” told her she smothered the girl with a pillow and buried the remains near water “because water represented peace,” Weintraub told jurors. Another inmate also claims that Graham confessed at a different time.

Weintraub said Lunceford was reluctant to snitch but “couldn’t stomach” knowing about the death of a child.

“If you tell me you killed an innocent child, I’m going to snitch, and I’m going to snitch proud. Because it’s different,” Weintraub quoted Lunceford as telling detectives.

Lunceford had been facing a life sentence as a repeat offender but has had her sentence reduced to 10 years because of her cooperation, court records show. With time off for good behavior, she could be released by the end of December, Sakin pointed out.

“She’s a rat,” Sakin said. “Robin Lunceford would do anything, anything, to get out of prison.”

Graham also has a checkered past, including a history of convictions for fraud. Authorities said she has used 47 different aliases and had 10 different driver’s licenses when she was arrested. Weintraub said Graham forged documents falsely claiming she was Rilya’s grandmother in order to collect state benefits — even after police believed the girl was dead.

The grandmother’s claim, he said, was “just the first of many, many lies that were woven together in this case to keep the police at bay for many years.”

Graham also told friends who questioned the girl’s whereabouts that she was on trips to New York, New Jersey and Disney World but would return.

The trial is expected to last about five weeks.”

Mistrial Denied In Rilya Wilson Murder Trial

[CBS Miami 11/27/12]

“Prosecutors showed a cage where they believe foster child Rilya Wilson was kept in court on Wednesday, on the third day of caretaker Geralyn Graham’s trial.

The cage was submitted as evidence.

Earlier, a prosecution witness testified that she saw Rilya with scars on her arms and head before she disappeared.

“There were scrapes on her arms. There was a gash on her head, forehead area,” family friend Laquica Tuff said of Rilya, who vanished without a trace more than a decade ago.

Graham is on trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse. The 66-year-old woman faces life in prison if convicted.

The judge refused to grant a mistrial on Tuesday.

Tuff was a teenager when she says she saw Rilya with the injuries. When she asked Graham about them, “She said that Rilya was clumsy and she always was falling and running into things – she was a clumsy little girl,” Tuff testified.

Prosecutors say Graham killed Rilya, a 4-year-old who was her foster child at the time. The case is notorious in part because the Department of Children and Families didn’t realize the girl was missing for more than one year.

Tuff and her mother used to visit Graham and Wilson. The two families were friendly and would occasionally gather at Graham’s house.

On another occasion, around Christmas in 2000, Tuff and her mother visited Graham’s house again.

There was no sign of Rilya, however. Tuff said that Graham told her that the girl “was on these series of trips to Disney World and New York” with a friend of hers.”

Cage Submitted as Evidence in Rilya Wilson Murder Case

[NBC Miami 11/28/12 by Steve Litz]

“Geralyn Graham sometimes put her foster child Rilya Wilson into a dog cage to restrict her movements, a witness testified Thursday.

Ludwig “Ziggy” Smith said he once found the young girl in the laundry room, where she was on the floor, being kept inside there for discipline by Graham.

As he was walking to the garage, Smith said, “I heard a little voice said hi, I looked down and saw Rilya there, she was sitting behind the door on the floor.”

Graham is on trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse after Rilya, 4, disappeared more than a decade ago. On Wednesday prosecutors submitted as evidence a cage where they believe that Rilya was kept.

Smith said he made at least 20 visits to Graham’s house to watch football and hang out in the fall of 2000, when he was dating her adult daughter.

Detra Winfield, who lent the cage to Graham, cried on the witness stand Thursday.

When a defense attorney asked Winfield if she ever saw Rilya in the dog cage, she replied no.

Smith said that he asked Graham about the cage.

“As she explained to me, she would put Rilya in there as a method of controlling her movement,” he said.

Smith said he only saw Rilya a handful of times – but he noticed scratches and bruises on the girl, which he says Graham claimed were self-inflicted.

“Mrs. G would explain that Rilya would do that to herself,” Smith said.

Most people assume the state’s case is hampered by the fact that Rilya’s body has never been found. But veteran defense attorney Alexander Michaels, who is not involved in the Graham trial, says that’s not the case.

Michaels said that in his experience, it’s bad for the defense when juries can play detective.

“In my opinion it’s tough to defend a case (where) there’s no body,” he said. “People usually believe that’s easier because there is no body therefore there should be no problem, and my experience is it’s usually much more difficult because of the tendency the jury has to speculate, to play detective, to look for things that are not there.”

Geralyn Graham Sometimes Put Rilya Wilson in Dog Cage: Witness

[NBC Miami 11/29/12 by Ari Odzer]

Update 4: “Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was in attendance Thursday when the murder trial of Geralyn Graham reconvened for a seventh day. Graham is the foster parent accused of killing Rilya Wilson more than a decade ago.

Congresswoman Wilson took special interest in the case several years ago as a state senator and helped pass the Rilya Wilson Act into law in July 2003.

Wilson’s appearance followed another day of testimony that featured another Department of Children and Families employee, Dora Betancourt, testifying that Rilya’s file was incomplete and no progress reports on Rilya had been completed in more than 15 months.

Betancourt was frustrated with the 15-month gap and set up a meeting with Graham at her home on April 18, 2002. Just as she arrived, Geralyn Graham pulled into the driveway with Rodericka, Rilya’s younger sister.

Betancourt asked Graham where Rilya was and Graham said that she had previously called DCF about Rilya’s “bizarre behavior” issues and an “worker” came to her home in January 2001, took her away, and never brought her back.

She also testified that Graham told her she was Rilya’s paternal grandmother, but Betancourt said the paperwork did not indicate that. When asked if Graham expressed shock at the fact that Rilya was missing, Betancourt testified, “Not in the way a grandmother would be if a child was missing.”

Also testifying Thursday was former DCF investigator Elizabeth Laufer, who said she was called in after Rilya was reported missing

We learned that the child was no longer there and there was no satisfactory explanation at the time as to what happened to her,” Laufer said.

According to Laufer, Graham claimed Rilya was a difficult child.

“She was afraid to be in large groups. She had pulled her sister underwater in the…bathroom,” Laufer said.

“She had physically abused the younger child by hitting her,” Laufer added.

She detailed a particularly disturbing incident on Rilya’s last Halloween.

“Geralyn had purchased an angel costume for Rilya, and she absolutely refused to wear it. Somebody else in the family had Cleopatra’s costume, and she wanted to be Cleopatra. She took the mask from this outfit and glued it to her face.”

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, former DCF caseworker and key witness Deborah Muskelly testified.

An investigation showed Muskelly did not make required monthly visits to the Grahams’ home for more than a year, even though she was filing reports and telling judges the girl was fine.

In court Tuesday, Muskelly admitted to falsifying mileage records, saying she “guesstimated.” Defense attorneys for Graham contended she lied.

Eventually Muskelly resigned from DCF and pleaded guilty to official misconduct for falsifying time sheets. She was placed on five years’ probation and paid restitution to the state.

On the witness stand, Muskelly talked about Rilya’s former foster parent Pamela Kendrick. She testified Rilya was happy with Kendrick.

But Geralyn Graham persuaded retired DCF supervisor Willie Harris to move Rilya to her home so she could be with her younger sister Rodericka, who was already under Graham’s care.

Willie Harris testified last week that he removed Rilya from the Kendrick home after Graham called DCF to report Rilya was being kept in filthy conditions and Kendrick refused to allow him to inspect her house.

Muskelly also told the jury that she never saw Graham display any affection toward Rilya and never complained about behavior problems she claims the girl had.

Based on Graham’s purported confession to fellow jail inmates, prosecutors say she smothered Rilya with a pillow and buried her body near a lake or canal. But Rilya’s remains have never been found, and part of the defense is to raise doubt for jurors about whether Rilya might really still be alive.

Jailhouse snitches Robin Lunceford and Pamela Graham are expected to testify later in the trial, which is scheduled to last several more weeks. Lunceford is expected to testify that Graham told her she killed Rilya because the little girl was evil.

Pamela Graham is expected to testify as per a plea deal with prosecutors that will likely allow her to avoid jail.

Graham is facing first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse charges, and faces life in prison if convicted.”

Former DCF Investigators Testify In Rilya Wilson Murder Trial

[CBS Miami 12/6/12]

“Rilya Wilson’s older sister attended the trial of the South Florida woman accused of murdering the foster child on Monday, saying that she wishes she could see her again.

Sims’ name originally was Randy, and her birth mother gave up her, Rilya and their sister Rodericka for adoption. Sims was adopted by community activist Willie Sims and his wife, Bonnie Sims, when she was very little. She said she doesn’t remember Rilya because they never really lived together, but her father says there was a day, at Brandy’s fourth birthday party, when Brandy held Rilya, who was only two at the time.

“I really don’t recall her, per se, but I remember as a little girl, seeing her on the television and seeing she has the same last name as me,” Brandy Sims said.

Graham, who was Rilya’s caretaker, has insisted she did not kill her. Her attorneys maintain that there is no evidence that Rilya is dead, let alone that Graham killed her.

“Justice in my mind is to have something to say that that person is no longer going to hurt people, that person is no longer going to be  a person to harm other children or any person the way they hurt my sister,” Sims said, as the trial entered its third week of testimony Monday.

Sims added: “I feel that I am loved, I am cared for, and that’s what I want for other kids.”

On Thursday [December 6, 2012], former Department of Children and Families investigator Barbara Toledo testified that Graham’s story that an unnamed DCF worker took Rilya away for psychiatric evaluations and never brought her back didn’t add up.”

Rilya Wilson’s Older Sister Says She Wishes She Could Meet Her

[NBC 6 12/10/12]

Update 5: “The legal custodian of missing Florida foster child Rilya Wilson says she suspected the worst when the girl disappeared but did nothing because she was afraid of getting the blame.

The testimony Monday came from Pamela Graham, whose live-in lover Geralyn Graham is accused of killing 4-year-old Rilya in late 2000 and disposing of her body. Geralyn Graham was Rilya’s main caretaker although Pamela had legal custody.

Pamela Graham says her companion was domineering and controlling, so she went along with a lie that a state welfare worker had picked up Rilya and never returned her. Pamela Graham also said she was afraid of going to jail herself.”

Key witness in Rilya Wilson case stayed silent out of fear

[Sun-Sentinel 12/17/12 by Curt Anderson]

“Robin Lunceford, a jailhouse informant, took the stand Wednesday afternoon in the murder trial of Geralyn Graham, accused of killing Rilya Wilson.

Lunceford has previously said that Graham confessed to smothering Wilson, 4, and disposing of her body near water when both were in jail together. Lunceford is considered one of the prosecution’s key witnesses.

“She whispered to me that she walked up to it (Rilya) and smothered it with a pillow,” Lunceford said in testimony Wednesday.

Lunceford said she took notes of her 2004 talk with Graham and read back parts of it to the jury which included, “She wants them to find the grave so it can be over. It’s eating her up inside.”

Lunceford continued saying Graham told her she gave Rilya “a proper burial in an area that was familiar to her, where Pam used to go fishing…that she buried it by the water because it represented peace.”

Defense attorneys are expected to say Lunceford, a 50-year-old career criminal, made up the story to get her own prison sentence reduced.

Lunceford’s testimony came after some fireworks in the courtroom.

Graham had a sudden outburst in court as her former lover, Pamela Graham, testified. Geralyn, who is not related to Pamela, although they claimed at times to be sisters, accused Pamela of lying.

“Stop lying, Pam. Tell them what happened. Tell them the truth,” Geralyn Graham loudly stated Tuesday afternoon, interrupting Pamela’s testimony. It caused Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez to demand order.

Minutes later, in another outburst, Geralyn said Pamela was the last one to hold Rilya in her arms.

Tinkler Mendez warned Geralyn she would be removed from court if it happened again.

Geralyn apologized for the outbursts.

Pamela, meantime, admitted during redirect questioning Wednesday that Geralyn instructed her in what to say about Rilya’s whereabouts. When originally asked, Geralyn said a DCF worker took Rilya for mental testing and never returned her but told friends she was on a trip to New York. Pamela Graham said none of it was true, but she remained silent for years.

“Had you been instructed by the defendant as to how to answer questions as to where Rilya is?” a state prosecutor asked Pamela Graham.

“Yes,” she replied.

It wasn’t until May 2004 that Pamela Graham admitted to a cold case investigator that there were many lies surrounding Rilya’s disappearance, including the story about a DCF worker taking the girl away. That was when she began cooperating.

“I was tired of carrying the lies I had previously told,” she previously testified.

Pamela also testified Wednesday that she received threatening voicemails, which she shared with police.

Geralyn Graham, 66, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder, child abuse and kidnapping charges. Pamela Graham made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to child abuse and child neglect charges in return for her testimony, and likely will face no jail time.

Rilya’s body has never been found and Pamela Graham said she does not know what happened to her. The girl’s disappearance caused a statewide scandal because child welfare officials did not realize she was missing for nearly 15 months, eventually leading to changes in the way foster children are monitored. Other child welfare reforms also followed.”

Jailhouse Informant Takes Stand In Rilya Wilson Trial

[CBS Miami 12/19/12]

“After a two-week break, jurors in the Geralyn Graham case were back in court Wednesday as they heard more testimony from jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford.

Lunceford has testified that Graham told her that she smothered the 4-year-old girl with a pillow because Rilya was evil and mentally troubled. She also said Graham confessed to her that she disposed of the body near water.

Lunceford who has given detailed testimony about the Graham’s conversations with her, had lapses in her memory and at one point, conflict with what she recalled in court Wednesday and what she said in a CBS4 News interview in May of 2005.

“Did you ever tell anyone Ms. Lunceford that my client said she buried it close to water because it would cleanse the soul.” Matters asked.

First, Lunceford responded no and then added, “I don’t know if I said that or not. I can’t remember.”

In a telephone jailhouse interview with CBS4 News in May of 2005, Lunceford said Graham had told her that she had buried the child near a lake so that it would “cleanse her soul.”

Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to allow the interview to be played for jurors.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Michael Matters cross-examined Lunceford who said Graham reacted strongly after her former partner Pamela Graham who was Rilya’s official caretaker spoke to police.

“But you do know that Pam had gone to the police and told them things that caused my client to get her arrested,” Matters asked Lunceford.

“She said that Pam had better be careful, she could go down also,” Lunceford said.

Lunceford who has been convicted of multiple armed robberies has traded her testimony for a lighter prison sentence from life to 10 years. It’s a fact that defense attorneys argued Wednesday made Lunceford less credible.

In profanity-laced letters to prosecutors, Lunceford threatened to stop cooperating if her prison conditions were not improved.

“F— you. F— you State Attorney’s Office. F— you, Bruce. F— your plea,” Matters said reading back a letter she wrote after agreeing to the plea in March of 2011. When he asked her if she wrote that letter, Lunceford replied, “Hmmm, that sounds like many that I wrote.”

Testimony Resumes In Geralyn Graham Trial

[CBS Miami 1/2/13]

“Jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford tearfully replied to the questions posed by a state prosecutor Thursday as she described how difficult her life behind bars became ever since she turned into a key informant in the state’s case against accused child killer Geralyn Graham.

“I was tired. I wanted to be left alone,” Lunceford said in between tears. “I wanted to do the right thing and leave me alone and it never stopped.”

Lunceford said she suffered abuse at the hands of fellow inmates for snitching and included incidents in which they spit in her food. At other times, corrections officers would send her to solitary confinement.

Following an intense two days of cross-examination, Lunceford was characterized by defense attorneys as a professional snitch who traded her testimony against Geralyn Graham who faces a first-degree murder in the death of foster child Rilya Wilson in exchange for a reduction to her life sentence.

Lunceford took the stand most of the day Thursday as state prosecutors tried to portray her as a credible witness who was detained with Graham. Lunceford is the state’s key witness who in earlier testimony said Graham, 66, confessed to her about killing Rilya Wilson.

But Thursday’s testimony got off to a late start after a Florida Department of Corrections driver got lost taking Lunceford to the courthouse. Testimony was expected to begin at 9:15 a.m., but resumed more than an hour later.

Lunceford was driven from a Central Florida prison and a corrections official told Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez that the driver was unfamiliar with South Florida roads causing the driver to get lost. However, there were no reports of a security breach. Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez admonished the official.

Lunceford has testified that Graham told her that she smothered the 4-year-old girl with a pillow because Rilya was evil and mentally troubled. She also said Graham confessed to her that she disposed of the body near water.

Lunceford who has given detailed testimony about the Graham’s conversations with her, had lapses in her memory and at one point, conflict with what she recalled in court Wednesday and what she said in a CBS4 News interview in May of 2005.

“Did you ever tell anyone Ms. Lunceford that my client said she buried it close to water because it would cleanse the soul.” Matters asked.

First, Lunceford responded no and then added, “I don’t know if I said that or not. I can’t remember.”

In a telephone jailhouse interview with CBS4 News in May of 2005, Lunceford said Graham had told her that she had buried the child near a lake so that it would “cleanse her soul.”

Jurors also heard a redacted portion of that interview Thursday afternoon.”

“By Thursday afternoon, Lunceford’s testimony ended. State prosecutors called Miami-Dade Corrections officer Chandra Christian who testified that both Lunceford and Graham had gone to court together in mid-August 2004 when the alleged confession occurred.”

Jailhouse Informant Completes Testimony During Graham Trial

[CBS Miami 1/3/13]

Update 6: “A Miami-Dade corrections officer, Chandra Christian, took the stand Friday and in earlier testimony said that Geralyn Graham who is also known as Jane Doe and jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford had been transported together to attend a bond court hearing in August, 2004.

She said that it was during that time that Graham allegedly had broken down and made a confession to Lunceford. Christian said Lunceford told her what she said.

Jane Doe had broke down and told her she had killed a little girl, how she killed her and where they buried her at,” Christian said.”

Credibility of jailhouse confession at issue in Graham trial/

[CBS Miami 1/4/13]

Inmate, convicted murderer, and law clerk Maggie Carr testified on January 4, 2013. Graham “asked me if there was any chemical agent that if there’s a body buried, could they pour a chemical agent and know that the body had been buried in a certain situation or area,” Carr said in court Friday.”

“Carr corroborated the earlier testimony of jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford, saying “Mama Graham” used her stash of food to gain favors.

“And I was enthralled, because she had items that we didn’t have in prison. So, she had cinnamon buns, and Cinnamon Grahams, and Hawaiian Punch, and I was excited about the chocolate with almonds,” Carr recalled.

Carr told the jury Graham talked to her every day because Carr was a law clerk, so she had knowledge that Graham could use.

“’Cause in my case, my co-defendant sang faster than the national anthem and I ended up in prison,” Carr testified. “And she was like, I’m not worried, because if there’s no body, it’s never gonna be found, so I have no murder.”

Carr said she pressed Graham about that.

“Did you bury it? She was like, well, it’s gone, and I was like well, what do you mean it’s gone?” Carr said.

When an attorney asked what she meant by “it’s gone,” Carr said “the child.”

“And I was like what do you mean, it’s gone?” Carr continued. “And she was like, waste away, it’s gone, the critters, it’s gone, there’s no body I don’t have to worry about, there’s no body, it’s not gonna be found.”

Geralyn Graham Used Stash of Food To Gain Favors Witness Testifies

[NBC MIami 1/4/13 by Ari Odzer]

“The prosecution rested Tuesday in the case of a woman accused of killing a young foster child after a former fellow jail inmate testified that the woman tearfully admitted killing the girl when the two shared a cell one night. Two other inmates have also said the woman confessed behind bars.

Ramona Tavia, a 41-year-old serving life for a 1994 robbery and murder, said she befriended Geralyn Graham in a woman’s jail annex in downtown Miami and was briefly moved into Graham’s cell in November 2003. Tavia said Graham seemed upset after a phone call and was crying when corrections officers led her into the cell.

Graham, Tavia said, kept repeating that “she killed the baby” to protect her former live-in lover, Pamela Graham.

“She said she had to protect Pam. Pam is sick and weak,” Tavia testified.”

“The defense will begin Wednesday with police investigators who were unable to find Rilya’s remains, eyewitnesses to a slaying or any forensic evidence. Pamela Graham testified earlier that she does not know what happened to Rilya

The state’s case rests heavily on the testimony of jailhouse snitches Tavia, Robin Lunceford and Maggie Carr. Tavia said Graham initially told her that a state child welfare worker had taken Rilya – in this telling, a white man rather than the black woman she described to many others – and had never returned the girl.”

After Tavia’s testimony capped some five weeks of trial, Assistant State Attorney Joshua Weintraub said the state rested its case.”

“The case is expected to go to the jury sometime next week.”

State rests in missing Fla. foster child case

[News Journal Online 1/8/13 by Curt Anderson/Associated Press]
“Cindy McCloud, 41, testified that the key witness, Robin Lunceford, told her while both were in state prison that she made up her story about caretaker Geralyn Graham smothering Rilya with a pillow and disposing of the girl’s remains near water.”
“McCloud, who has been convicted of 27 felonies and was most recently released from prison in June, said Lunceford appeared upset one time when they were incarcerated at a prison near Ocala and McCloud asked what was wrong. Lunceford responded that she was going to testify about the purported confession and that none of it was true.

“Me and her were standing there and she said, ‘you know, it’s all lies. All of it,'” McCloud testified. “She just basically told me ‘it’s all lies and it’s making me crazy.’ That’s what stresses her out.”

Graham attorney Scott Sakin asked why Lunceford would make that up. “To get out. To go home,” said McCloud, who now lives in Lakeland.

In addition, McCloud said she overheard Lunceford and another jailhouse informant, Maggie Carr, come up with a way for Carr to also testify against Graham in hopes of getting some benefit. Carr testified earlier that she also met Graham behind bars and that Graham had indicated Rilya’s body would never be found because it had gone to “the elements.”

At one point in prison, McCloud said Lunceford tapped on a stack of Graham trial documents and said, “One more big fat lie,” in reference to Carr’s testimony.

Lunceford, a career criminal, had been sentenced to life in prison before agreeing to testify, which resulted in a plea deal cutting the sentence to 10 years. McCloud said she showed her paperwork detailing the plea agreement.

“She had gotten her plea agreement before she testified because they weren’t going to trick her,” said McCloud. “She was just talking about how she had gotten her time knocked down and she was getting to go home.”

Carr, who is serving 25 years to life for a role in a murder, has no plea deal in exchange for her testimony but will soon become eligible for parole.

Another inmate, Ramona Tavia, testified that Graham told her she killed Rilya to protect her live-in lover, Pamela Graham.

McCloud said she has nothing to gain and was made no promises in exchange for her testimony on Graham’s behalf. She said she has never met Graham.

“I would hate to be in trial and convicted of something because of someone else’s lies. I don’t think that’s right,” she said.”

“A judge refused Wednesday to order the acquittal of Graham despite arguments from defense attorneys that there’s no conclusive proof Rilya is even dead. ”

Rilya Wilson case: Former inmate says others colluded

[Local 10 1/9/13]

“Testimony has ended in the trial of Geralyn Graham, the South  Florida woman accused of killing 4-year-old foster child Rilya  Wilson more than a decade ago.

Jurors in the case will return Tuesday for closing arguments  followed by deliberations. The 67-year-old Graham faces life in  prison if convicted of killing Rilya, who investigators say  probably died in late 2000.

Testimony ended Wednesday after almost eight weeks.”

Testimony Ends in Rilya Wilson Case

[NBC Miami 1/16/13]

Closing arguments will be presented on Tuesday January 22, 2013. Jury is expected to start deliberating on Wednesday January 23, 2013 to decide whether or not to convict Graham on murder charges despite not ever finding a body.

Closing Arguments Tuesday in Rilya Wilson Murder Trial

[NBC Miami 1/22/13 by Associated Press]

Update 7:”After an eight-week trial, a jury is close to deliberating the case of a South Florida woman accused of killing foster child Rilya Wilson more than a decade ago.

Defense attorney Michael Matters and prosecutors wrapped up closing arguments Wednesday.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberations on Thursday [January 24, 2013]. They must decide if 67-year-old Geralyn Graham smothered the 4-year-old girl in 2000 after allegedly abusing her for months.

Graham insists she is innocent. She faces life in prison if convicted.

The case triggered a major scandal at Florida’s child-welfare agency because Rilya’s disappearance wasn’t discovered for 15 months. The case led to resignations and the passage of reform laws.

Rilya’s remains have never been found. The state’s case rests heavily on jailhouse informants who say Graham confessed to them behind bars.

Matters spent much of his time taking shots at the star witness for the state, jailhouse informant Robin Lunceford. She testified that Graham had confessed in jail to killing Rilya. Lunceford , as a career criminal, was arrested for armed robbery and was looking at a life sentence for being habitual offender. Matters said she made things up to make a deal with the state.

“She didn’t have to take a chance on getting convicted again, she got the best deal known, they cut her life sentence down to 10 years,” Matters said.

He added that the story that Graham confessed to Lunceford doesn’t make sense.

“And tell her all the things she never told her lover and companion for all that time, that she never told anyone else, that she denied forever, but to Robin the Saint, she’s gonna confess? Come on,” he said.

He also spoke about a lack of physical evidence.

“There’s no evidence of it because my client never committed murder, my client never smothered Rilya Wilson, my client never buried Rilya Wilson anywhere, and that’s the first element of murder in the first degree, that’s the first thing they gotta prove, they gotta prove Rilya is dead,” he said.

But in the state’s rebuttal, prosecutor Sally Weintraub went through Lunceford’s testimony point by point, aruging that Lunceford told police details that could’ve only come from Graham.

“How would Robin Know there was no DNA in this dog cage? Because the defendant told her it was clean,” Weintraub said.”

Defense Finishes Closing Arguments in Rilya Wilson Case

[NBC Miami 1/24/13]

“Jurors say they have reached verdicts on kidnapping and child abuse charges in the case of a Florida woman accused of killing 4-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson, but they are deadlocked on a murder charge.     The jury said in a note Thursday they reached verdicts on separate kidnapping and child abuse charges in the case of 67-year-old Geralyn Graham. The note did not say what the verdicts were.     The note said there was an 11-1 split on murder, but it didn’t say which side had the majority. The judge is telling jurors to continue deliberations.     Graham faces life in prison if convicted of killing Rilya in late 2000. The girl’s body has never been found. ”

More deliberation expected Friday, jurors stuck on murder count

[Action News Jax 1/24/13 by Associated Press]

“The deadlocked jury in the Rilya Wilson murder trial returned to court Friday morning and began deliberating at about 10 a.m.

After eight weeks of often-gripping testimony from dozens of witnesses and with a dog cage displayed prominently in the courtroom, it has come down to this: one lone juror.

That single juror could not agree Thursday with 11 others in deciding on a murder charge against Geralyn Graham, who prosecutors say smothered her 4-year-old foster daughter and disposed of the body.

But the foreperson, in her note to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez, said the jury had indeed agreed on verdicts for the other charges: three counts of aggravated child abuse and one of kidnapping.

Those verdicts will not be known until the deliberations are finished Friday – or the judge calls for a mistrial on the murder count.

As they exited Thursday night, many jurors looked exasperated and exhausted, their arms sternly folded.

Graham, 67, of Kendall, is charged with aggravated child abuse, kidnapping and first degree murder. She faces life in prison if convicted.

For weeks, prosecutors have tried to make the case that Graham murdered Rilya, smothering the little girl with a pillow in December 2000, then telling a host of lies to cover up her disappearance.

“Lies, deceit and cover-up,” prosecutor Joshua Weintraub told jurors.

Graham’s lover, Pamela Graham – who is not related to the defendant – testified that Geralyn Graham told her she would never see the girl again, and pressured her to lie about her disappearance.

Geralyn Graham secured a dog cage to keep the girl from climbing on furniture and restrained her to the bed using “flex cuffs,” Pamela Graham told jurors. And Geralyn Graham refused to say what happened and even threatened her with a hammer if she called authorities.

“I didn’t know but I thought something bad had happened,” Pamela tearfully told jurors.

Graham, in jail on a related fraud charge, was indicted for murder in 2005 after a jail inmate, Robin Lunceford, told police that the woman tearfully confessed to smothering the child with a pillow, then disposing of the body near a body of water.

Lunceford provided intimate details about the case that few knew, prosecutors said.

But Lunceford, a combative and eccentric longtime con, had credibility issues. She got a plea deal for armed robbery in exchange for testimony.

“Every bit of the story she concocted about my client is absolutely unbelievable,” defense lawyer Michael Matters told jurors Wednesday. “She graduated from prison life with a master in manipulation and a doctorate in deceit.”

Rilya was born to a crack-addicted mother, and by 2000, was living with Graham under state supervision.

The state Department of Children and Families would later come under intense scrutiny because the agency failed to notice the girl was missing for more than a year.

When the agency finally noticed Rilya was gone in April 2002, Geralyn Graham told investigators that an unnamed DCF worker had whisked the the child away for mental health treatment.

The little girl’s disappearance spurred massive upheaval and reforms, leading to a series of public hearings, a scathing report, legislative changes and a even a visit to Miami by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

Several DCF employees were fired, the top Miami administrator resigned and Secretary Kathleen Kearney left the agency months later.

Prosecutors at Graham’s trial presented a circumstantial case that included a host of DCF employees, plus friends who testified about the woman’s conflicting accounts of what happened to the girl.

Judge Tinkler Mendez will allow jurors to continue deliberating Friday before pushing them – in a legal instruction known as an “Allen Charge” – to find a way to come to an unanimous decision.

If they cannot reach a decision after the judge’s instructions, then a mistrial could be declared on the murder count. However, jurors could come back with a lesser crime such as second-degree murder or manslaughter.”

[The Miami Herald 1/24/13 by David Ovalle]

Update 8: “A mistrial was declared on the murder charge against Graham after jurors said they were unable to resolve their 11-1 split on that murder count.

Graham, however, was found guilty of kidnapping and aggravated child abuse.
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson said she is relieved, but she wishes Graham would have been convicted of murder.

Wilson also said she’s still concerned about Rilya’s body not having been found.

Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 12th, at 10 a.m.

Jurors went behind closed doors Thursday after receiving instructions from Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez. Graham, 67, faced life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. In addition, the jury could have opted for a less severe manslaughter charge rather than murder. Click here to see the verdict form.
The trial

Prosecutors said Graham, who was Rilya’s caretaker, smothered the girl with a pillow in December 2000 and disposed of her body, which has never been found. Key to the case is a purported jailhouse confession by Graham to career criminal Robin Lunceford, who said Graham told her she did it because Rilya was evil and demonic.

Before that, trial testimony showed Rilya was kept in a dog cage, tied to her bed with plastic restraints and forced for long periods to stay in a small laundry room as punishment for disobedience.

“She was being brutalized. She was being punished to the extreme,” said defense attorney Michael Matters in closing arguments.

Rilya’s disappearance went unnoticed by state officials for 15 months, triggering high-level resignations at the Department of Children and Families and leading to passage of several reform laws, such as better tracking of foster children. A caseworker who failed to check up on Rilya in person during all those months eventually pleaded guilty to official misconduct charges for falsifying time sheets.”

Verdict reached in Rilya Wilson case

[Local 10 1/25/13]

““I have mixed emotions today,” said Congresswoman Wilson.  While this verdict brings some degree of closure to the criminal aspect of this case, we have much more work to do in order to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.  Rilya would have been 16 years old today, with a world of opportunity open to her.  While we cannot change the tragic fact of her death, we can take steps—including passing the federal version of the Rilya Wilson Act—to honor her memory by making life safer for young people in her position.  Foster children are the most vulnerable members of our community, and we have an obligation to protect them.

I applaud the Office of State Attorney Kathy Rundle and the Assistant State Attorneys who worked diligently on this case.  Situations like these are always difficult and the State Attorney’s Office was professional and diligent in its efforts.”

CONGRESSWOMAN FREDERICA WILSON STATEMENT ON RILYA WILSON CASE VERDICT

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson statement

Update 9: Geralyn is sentenced to 55 years in prison. She is 67 years old

Rilya Wilson Case: 55-year sentence in disappearance of Fla. foster child 12 years ago

[CBS News 2/12/13]

Florida’s Children First’s Howard M. Talenfield writes a commentary about the 193 missing Florida children from Foster Care (that includes Rilya) that is worth reading. See it here.

Update 10: Prosecutors will retry Geralyn for murder! Trial set for September 2013.

“Prosecutors in Miami have decided to retry the caretaker of missing 4-year-old foster child Rilya Wilson on a murder charge.

A jury in January convicted 68-year-old Geralyn Graham of kidnapping and child abuse but could not agree on a murder count. Graham was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the convictions, but prosecutors said Friday they will try her again for murder.

A judge set a September trial date.

Rilya vanished in December 2000 from Graham’s home but her disappearance wasn’t noticed for 15 months, largely because a Department of Children and Families caseworker neglected to check on the girl. Rilya’s body has never been found.”

Murder retrial for caretaker in Rilya Wilson case

[Bradenton Herald 3/16/13]

Update 11: Pamela Graham’s probation has ended though she has never revealed what happened to Rilya!

“After nine years of cooperating with prosecutors [Except for the important aspect of the case-where Rilya is!], the former legal guardian of missing Miami foster child Rilya Wilson appeared Monday in court, where her probation was terminated.

Pamela Graham, who pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect in 2004, will not serve any jail time.

In December, Pamela Graham testified against her former live-in lover, Geralyn Graham, who was charged with murdering, kidnapping and abusing the child in 2000. The two women are not related.

Geralyn Graham is serving 55 years in prison for kidnapping and torturing Rilya, whose body was never found. A jury in December convicted her of abusing and kidnapping Rilya, but deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office says it will retry her for murder.

In 2004, Pamela Graham pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate against her former companion. Her original plea deal called for 364 days in jail plus five years of probation, to be meted out after her testimony.

Over the years, she checked in with authorities every week, exactly 416 times in all, prosecutor Sally Weintraub told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel De La O on Monday. Before Monday, Graham still believed she was going to spend the time in jail.

Pamela, a meek woman who testified tearfully at trial, said Geralyn would bind the child’s hands to the bed railing with plastic “flex cuffs” and confine Rilya for hours in a laundry room. Pamela also testified that Geralyn obtained a dog cage in which she confined Rilya to keep her from climbing on furniture.

At trial, Pamela also told jurors that Geralyn pressured her to lie about Rilya’s disappearance — but never revealed what happened to the child.

“I was scared,” Pamela Graham told jurors. “I knew that I was the one who had legal custody of her, and I was afraid that whatever happened to her, I would be blamed for it.”

The disappearance of the chubby-cheeked 4-year-old roiled Florida’s Department of Children & Families, which had awarded Pamela custody of Rilya, who was born to a drug addict.

For more than a year, the agency failed to note that Rilya was missing. When workers discovered that the girl was gone, Geralyn Graham claimed a mystery DCF worker had whisked her away for mental-health treatment.

Prosecutors in 2005 indicted Geralyn Graham on a murder charge after she allegedly confessed to a jail cellmate that she had smothered the child with a pillow and disposed of her corpse in a body of water in Southwest Miami-Dade.”

Caretaker of missing foster child Rilya Wilson has probation terminated

[Miami Herald 4/15/13 by David Ovalle]

Update 12: “A convicted armed robber who testified that Rilya Wilson’s foster mother had  admitted killing the child has been released from a Florida prison, officials  say.

Robin Lunceford, 50, was the star witness for the prosecution at Geralyn  Graham’s trial in Miami earlier this year. Prosecutors urged a judge at a  hearing last week to give Lunceford credit for good behavior, The Miami Herald  reported.

“It was the right thing to do. She was a good citizen and stepped up to the  plate and contributed to the trial,” Joshua Weintraub, an assistant state’s  attorney in Miami, said.

Rilya, who was about 4, disappeared in 2000, but the Florida Department of  Children and Families only realized she had vanished two years later. Graham  said a social worker had taken her for medical tests and failed to return her.

Graham was sentenced to 55 years in prison after a jury convicted her of  kidnapping and aggravated child abuse while being unable to agree on murder.  Prosecutors say they plan to retry her on that charge and expect Lunceford to  testify again.

Lunceford has a long criminal record and had been sentenced to life. That was  reduced to 10 years after she agreed to testify against Graham.

She said Graham told her she smothered Rilya because the child was “evil and  a demon” and then dumped the body in a lake or canal. Lunceford had offered to  testify in other cases, claiming three other accused killers had confessed to  her.

Lunceford’s testimony was almost the only evidence against Graham. Graham was  originally charged with fraud for continuing to collect payments for Rilya’s  care after the girl disappeared.

“Her release underscores what I said to the jury: The state is willing to do  anything and everything to get her testimony, including getting her out of  prison before she should have,” Graham’s lawyer, Michael Matters, said  Monday.”

 

Chief prosecution witness in case of missing Fla. girl released

[UPI 5/21/13]

Update 13: “Prosecutors in Miami have decided not to retry the caretaker of long-missing child Rilya Wilson on a murder charge.

A memo released Wednesday by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office recommends the charge be dismissed against Geralyn Graham. The 68-year-old Graham was sentenced earlier this year to 55 years in prison on kidnapping and child abuse charges, but jurors deadlocked on the murder count.

“We expected this would happen eventually but we didn’t know it would happen today,” said Graham’s attorney, Scott Sakin.

The memo cites numerous difficulties with another trial, including the fact that Rilya’s body was never found.

Four-year-old Rilya vanished in December 2000 from Graham’s home but her disappearance wasn’t noticed for 15 months, largely because a Department of Children and Families caseworker neglected to check on her.

The state’s case hinged on jailhouse informants who say Graham confessed to them. Graham insists she is innocent.

The kidnapping and child abuse convictions remain on appeal, Sakin said. Graham had been facing a life sentence if convicted in the murder.”

Geralyn Graham Won’t Face Murder Retrial in Rilya Wilson Disappearance[NBC Miami 10/30/13]

Update 14:“In a case that shook Florida’s child-welfare system, an appeals court Wednesday upheld kidnapping and child-abuse convictions of a caregiver for 4-year-old Rilya Wilson, who disappeared in 2000 in Miami.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal rejected arguments by Geralyn Graham, whose partner, Pamela Graham, received custody of the child in 2000 from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Geralyn Graham took care of Rilya and was accused of abuses such as locking the child in a laundry room and only allowing her out to use the bathroom.

Rilya disappeared in December 2000, and the Department of Children and Families did not discover until April 2002 that the girl was not living with Pamela Graham, according to the ruling.

In 2013, a jury found Geralyn Graham guilty of kidnapping with the intent to interfere with any governmental or political function and two counts of aggravated child abuse.

With Rilya’s body never found, the jury did not reach a verdict on a first-degree murder charge.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court Wednesday unanimously upheld the aggravated child-abuse convictions, which also included allegations that the girl was bound to a bed at a night.

“The jury was presented with ample evidence from which it could conclude that Geralyn Graham’s actions in locking Rilya in a laundry room and binding Rilya to the bed with plastic cuffs were motivated by Graham’s resentment toward and hatred for Rilya,” said the decision, written by Judge Edwin Scales and joined by Chief Judge Frank Shepherd and Judge Kevin Emas.

Scales and Shepherd also agreed to uphold the kidnapping conviction, though Emas dissented on that issue.”

Kidnapping and child-abuse convictions upheld in Rilya Wilson case[Sun Sentinel 3/11/15 by News Service of Florida]