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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. I think Austin has one of the scariest type of anger issues because he holds everything in and he doesn't let it out.
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And then when it does come out, it's too much. Okay, I promise after this we're done with child murder.
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I swear, I've had enough. I don't even know why we've done so many this year. It just happened.
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Whatever, this is Season 10, Episode 246. On Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.
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So we are fully aware of all of the sight problems, all of the app problems. It's about five years old now.
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We're working on it. We've been working on it now for a while, but technology is hard.
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So please bear with us. Thank you so much for sticking with us as Plus members. If you haven't joined yet, you can still join.
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It's still five bucks a month because of our technology problems. Go over to sortandscale.com slash Plus.
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That's where you get it. Life is a struggle. Anyone not born with a silver spoon in their mouth is profoundly aware of that fact.
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Trials and tribulations are ever-present in today's society. We can either adapt and overcome life's obstacles, or wallow in self-pity and complain and bitch and moan on Twitter about how life is unfair.
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These people have so much more than I do. You have to push yourself, though, to achieve your dreams, because sitting there and complaining isn't going to do you any good.
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you have to how do they say uh hustle a little bit but it's important not to let the grind
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wear you down either you could easily lose sight of your dreams because you get bogged down by the
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day-to-day and all of us have day-to-day nonsense we have to deal with and let's just say that you
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are one of those lucky ones. And through some grace of God or game of chance, you happen to
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actually achieve those dreams. You get everything you've ever wanted. Well, those dreams are rarely
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easy to achieve, but they're always easy to lose. And take it from me, one mistake will cost you
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everything you've ever worked for and ever wanted. Hello? Hi. Hi. Is this Erica?
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This is she. This is Erica. She asked us to keep her last name confidential. Okay.
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Wow. Well, holy crap. This doesn't happen very often, but oh my goodness. It was, it was, when I first saw the news, when was it about, well, last year, I could
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not believe it. I couldn't believe it. and Ari was a good friend. She was a comedian.
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I live in Charlotte, North Carolina and she lived in Greenville, South Carolina which is about two hours away.
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And we met through a mutual friend who was also a comedian and we just, you know how you just click with some people?
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That's what happened with Ari. Okay, so let's just back up for a second. Kind of explain how we got in contact because this is an unusual thing to happen here on
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certain scales. Like me calling you out of the blue, you reaching out to me on social media because
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you have something to say. If you could just sum that up a little bit. Well, I just saw how people were losing their mind because he came back to social media
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and I think he's absolutely ridiculous. He's like, good Lord, let the man be. He's just, you know, he's just doing his thing.
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And I was just happy to see you back trolling people. But listen, my job is to provide entertainment.
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So if I can do that in any way whatsoever, even if it's just to make an ass of myself on social media, then that's what I'm going to do.
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Because that's, you know, of course. Yes, absolutely. But OK, so you you reached out after that and you're like, hey, by the way.
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I sent you that article about Ari by mistake because I was sending it to a friend of mine
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whose name was right underneath yours and I just clicked yours by mistake. This is an interesting case One that we probably wouldn have covered except for the unusual way we found out about it Erica sent us an article about this case by mistake In January of 2021 in the city of Simpsonville South Carolina tucked into the state upcountry
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a tragedy struck in a quiet neighborhood of split-level housing on the west side of town.
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Jerry Austin Robinson called 911 at 2.15 p.m. on January 15, 2021 for his soon-to-be daughter, three-year-old Victoria, affectionately known as Tori.
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He and his wife, Ariel Robinson, already began to attempt CPR on the little girl.
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They claimed she drank too much water and began to choke. I hollered for Austin to come upstairs.
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He came in the room when she was on her stool. And he looked at me and he was like, is she breathing?
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And I said, I think I hear her trying to breathe. I hear something in her lungs, though.
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It sounds like she's got like fluid in her lungs. And so they said, should I call 911?
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I said, yeah, call 911 because I don't know. I don't know what to do. Hey, Madison Fire, what's the address of your emergency?
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Tell me exactly what happened. I heard your daughter's choking on water right now.
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Your three-year-old daughter is what? Choking on water right now. We need help immediately.
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Okay, we can get help on the way. Okay. So is she coughing like choking or is she underwater?
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It's hard to tell because they talk over each other, but Austin said little Tori was not conscious.
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She had choked on water and become unresponsive. 911 would talk them through laying her flat on the floor and performing CPR.
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You've heard all this stuff before. The Simpsonville Fire Department would arrive four minutes later
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and take over. About five minutes after that, EMS arrived. Not only was Tori unresponsive, but
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she also didn't have a pulse. Jerry and Ariel sat on their bed in the room across the hall and
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quietly stared in disbelief. They just listened to the ruckus of the many paramedics trying to
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save Tori's life. Tori had only been alive for a short time, but had already been with three
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families. She and her older brothers were in South Carolina's foster care system. Her biological
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parents were good parents. They just weren't good together. We were a toxic couple. We always
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co-parented well when we were apart. It was if we got together that was the problem. He was the
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best dad and that's not anything that anybody can say that we weren't good parents we just made bad
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decisions. Tori's bio mom Casey tried to do everything they asked to get her kids back.
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What all did you do to get to that point where you were trying so hard to prove that you wanted
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her back? I did from the very beginning I made it very clear that I would do anything DSS told me
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At the beginning, they were very content with how fast I was doing. I had to do parenting classes.
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I did the in-home parenting. I did it at the Dream Center. I did both because I missed a class on one, and they sent me to another.
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So I did two parenting classes. Then I did 26 weeks of battered women's classes.
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I did the two times a week for 12 weeks at the Phoenix Center while pregnant. And I didn't have a vehicle, so I had to find rides to these.
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It was difficult. They knew that. I asked for help multiple times. It was just one thing after another after another.
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My living situation got bounced around back and forth. I've asked for help for that, and it was just roadblock after roadblock after roadblock.
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And every time I'd get so close, and I did, I completed all of the things that they asked me to do.
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But every time I got close to mission, it was something else, something else. And then by the end of it, I didn't have one of the five mandatory things that you have to have according to the DSS.
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Casey jumped through hoops to get her kids back, but fell short on one thing, her own place to live.
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DSS made me feel that it was better for them. Victoria was with a loving foster family, and I thought in my heart that that's where they were going,
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or someone like that, a family like that, I thought that's what the system was for.
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And so I thought, well, if they can have better, happier lives and become better versions of themselves,
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then I guess that's okay. And DDS, I trusted them. Casey was young and only wanted the best for her children.
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So when the DDS told her she couldn't have her kids back, she wasn't fit. They convinced her the children would be better off,
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better provided for, if she gave them up for adoption. Tori and her brothers lived for 10 months with the Huggins family.
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When she entered a room, all eyes were on her because she demanded it and she was a cutie.
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A fun little girl. She was funny. She was sassy. Definitely had some sassy. But after that short stint in foster care, Tori and her two brothers got some good news.
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A family was willing to adopt them. Here's Erica again. For Ariel, she's got two biological sons and she always wanted to have a daughter.
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and she you know she tried she told me that she had tried IVF and it didn take So she decided to go through other means to find that piece of family that she felt was missing
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She had two biological boys of her own with her husband. And Ari decided to adopt.
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and she was very excited back in the fall of 2019 because they had called her to tell her that there was a newborn adoption
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that they had her on the list for and this woman was ecstatic. Unfortunately, that adoption fell through for whatever reason.
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She tried again a few months later to see if she could get a foster child or find a little girl that she could call her own.
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And the agency called her, told her that there was a little girl that they could foster.
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She came from a broken home when they contacted Ariel and told her that there was a little girl that had two little brothers.
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She said, well, you know what? I'll adopt all three of them because I can't. What kind of person would I be
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if I were to separate this little girl from her brothers. After always wanting a daughter of her own,
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Ariel, who everyone calls Ari, got her wish fulfilled. She and Austin would adopt three more children
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to make them a family of seven. The Robinsons were soon to be Tori and her brother's forever home,
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with the adoption set to be final in just five days after the call to 911. Now, she was lying lifeless on the floor.
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In an effort to regain a pulse, a paramedic administered six doses of epinephrine directly into her femur.
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But that did nothing. As they continued to urge Tori's heart to beat, they noticed odd bruising on her abdomen and legs.
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The fire department immediately notified police. Charlie Warren, just be advised, I am holding a confirmed 1089 juvenile cellar circle FD requesting PD.
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When the police arrived and asked how Tori got the bruises, Ari explained that she pushed really hard on her stomach during her attempts at the Heimlich maneuver and CPR.
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are. Ariel told us that she did the bruising right then and there prior to 9-1-1 being called
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to try to do the Heimlich and was pushing on her stomach. But I asked, well, what about the legs?
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How did they get so purple? Ari explained that her older brother had anger issues and was violent,
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mostly taking his anger out on young Tori. With so many families in such a short amount of time,
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It's hard to pinpoint where behavior is learned, but Ari was blaming the behavioral issues on the previous foster parents.
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She just, she had the best personality, and I'm not just saying that because I was her mama, but...
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You could not be mad at that girl just by the way she looked and how sweet she was.
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She was sweet as could possibly be. Officers looked at the bruises and then looked at pictures of Tori's two older brothers
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and knew something just wasn't adding up. When I looked at the little boys, Jaden being the bigger one and how small he was,
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to myself, I thought, I said, you know, I don't care if you gave that kid a ball bat.
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He's not going to be able to do this much damage to that little girl. Torrey's older brothers were barely so.
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One was six. The other was seven. but far too small to inflict the amount or the severity of bruising the officers witnessed on
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Tori. When officers asked Ari what led up to Tori's condition, Austin stood quietly nearby
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and let Ari do the talking. She explained that after a pancake breakfast and half a popsicle
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for a mid-morning snack, Tori went to watch TV. Then she began asking for more and more cups of water,
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far more than she usually drank. When Ari went to check on her, she noticed her stomach had become hard
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and Tori was complaining of it hurting and that she was cold. Ari wrapped her in a heated blanket
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before she went limp. When Tori's breathing became labored and she began to make a gurgling sound,
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Ari tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver because she thought she was choking. When she realized that wasn't working, she laid Tori on her back and pushed on her stomach.
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Eventually, Tori expelled the water and the rest of the contents of her stomach,
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but still wasn't breathing any better. That's when Ari told Austin to call 911. After finally getting a faint pulse from Tori, she was rushed to the hospital for further treatment.
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The police and DSS would start investigating her mysterious injuries. The police were suspicious, and rightfully so.
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Little kids don't drink water until they pass out. It's just not a thing. the bruising seemed like
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the more obvious reason for the little girl's condition the bruises seemed recent and Ari and Austin
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were the only ones home with little Tori that day just until they got to the bottom of her injuries the rest of the Robinson children would be removed from the home
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Ari's two biological children were placed with her father, and Tori's brothers were put with yet another foster family.
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Tori, though, wouldn't be so lucky. Later that evening, they would get word that Tori had passed away.
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A call to 911 sent a slew of emergency personnel to the Robinsons' home. A distress call for a child choking on water led to the discovery of far worse injury.
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Three-year-old Tori was covered from the waist down with dark bruises. As word of the potential crime was disseminated through the community,
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everyone found it was hard to imagine such a thing could happen in Simpsonville.
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Named the safest city in South Carolina since 2017. Especially because Ari was a recent local celebrity.
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How did you meet Ariel Robinson? Am I pronouncing that correctly? Yes. I met Ariel at a comedy show.
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It was back in 2018 that I met her. She was headlining a show at a local brewery.
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And I met her and I talked to her after the show. We clicked and we started a friendship through Facebook.
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And it was a great time. Wonderful personality. She had a lot to say, said a lot of things that made you also think, not part of the show, just some personal conversation.
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That's how I met her. I got two boys. I got an eight-year-old and a 11-year-old.
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And they all the way to be hollering. Mama, we want a sister. We want a sister. And I said, well, you know, if Mama came by, they helped the target.
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You don't get up. Ari was an up-and-coming stand-up comedian who Erica was introduced to by a mutual friend.
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We just kept in contact through Facebook, mostly. I really couldn't travel much to her city, but we kept in contact through Facebook,
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called each other, you know, maybe every two or three weeks. The chance of meeting blossomed into a true friendship, both online and off.
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We said, well, let's get a girl a doll. I said, okay, we can do that. So we go to the pal, we're looking at the dolls, we see one doll.
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She looked like she just had a puppy. Someone got stretched out. Amazing. They want this dog.
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So they said, don't worry. Her stomach will go that down over time. If not, we can have surgery to make the flat again.
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You want me to have plastic surgery on my dog. So this dog can get a tummy tuck.
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Meanwhile, I'm still walking around and it's like, I just had puppies. I don't think so.
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That's not how that works. When I would go out and see her in shows at different places, she would come over here often to my city as well.
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And I would make sure that we would have either dinner before or dinner after. We make sure to spend time together.
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But before she was a comedian, Ari was the farthest thing from it. And knowing kids today, she was likely the butt of the joke.
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She used to be a teacher. I want to say it was middle school. She used to be an English teacher on top of that.
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And she was beloved by her students. And you couldn't find anybody who would say a bad thing about her.
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And then she quit teaching because she was going to pursue comedy full time. She was doing very well.
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She was getting booked around the country. And she had quite a following. She was doing really well with herself.
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and then she got the spot on Food Network with Worst Cooks of America. Food Network's Worst Cooks in America is like a cooking game show
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where 12 to 16 unskilled contestants compete to cook a three-course meal for three food critics.
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Sounds like a fun show, actually. I'd probably watch it. As you can imagine, though, most of the dishes were inedible.
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Out of 11,000 people, I was one of 14. Then I had to not only beat everybody on my team,
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I had to beat the best person on the red team who would beat everybody on their team.
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Yes, I am putting mayo in a glove. And she was getting calls for shows after appearing on Worst Cooks of America
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because she won. She won that show. She won the show. She won. She won $25,000. and a cook set and something else.
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I never cried one time on the show. I was just depressing it because I think I was so nervous
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that if I release too much, I'm going to release too much. And the winner of Worst Cooks in America is...
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Carrie! Oh, my God! Now I truly am not the worst cook in America. And she said she did it all for her kids.
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I wanted to win this money so much for them to give them a better life. They are loving my new cooking skills.
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Like every day my kids start requesting new stuff and I'm like, hey, wait a minute.
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I'm not a waitress now. I don't got a whole pantry in here to go cook for y'all at this restaurant.
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I just know that the Lord had his hands on me and he had a purpose for me to go on there.
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He knew we were going through this adoption. and we really could use the money and he just let everything work out for our good.
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Ari took a gamble, quitting her teaching career to pursue one in comedy. But it seemed to be paying off
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and just in the nick of time. When she got the spot on worst cooks in America, she was about to lose her house.
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The windfall of cash saved their home and set them up to adopt the daughter she always wanted.
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So I'm trying to adopt a baby girl. and the social worker, you know, they have to come over and, you know, see that you're not too crazy to adopt.
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The hallway, she's coming over, I'm thinking, I'm telling my husband, I said, you know what,
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we should have locked the other two up in cages because if she meet them two, ain't no way they're going to give us another.
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She gets there too late. They upstairs, hollering, screaming. Where are moms at?
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Where are moms at? Okay, yeah, I don't like y'all kids either. But they upstairs, hollering, screaming, going on.
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You know, you get to that mommy level and you're like, you're the hat. Finally getting the woman is in my face.
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So I turn around, yell upstairs. Shut up! Come in there and punch you in your throat!
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Turn it around and she's looking at me to say, where y'all are looking at me? It's a game.
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I push it in. They push it in. We got through. Did you know anything about her husband or boyfriend?
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All I knew about her husband was what she would tell me, how he was very supportive of her and everything that she did.
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She would always say about him that he was great, he was understanding. When she told him that she wanted to go full-time comedian,
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he said that he would back her up. What did he do for a living? I can't remember what he did.
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When Ari quit teaching to pursue comedy, her husband Austin supported her. He said he would back her up.
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The reason Erica couldn't remember what he did was that he didn't really do anything.
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He dropped out of high school in the 12th grade and never got his GED. Now at 34, he worked odd jobs
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like at a chicken processing facility. But mostly he just managed Ari's comedy career.
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from chicken processing to entertainment manager. Sounds like a pretty legit career path.
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The day after Torrey's death, the Simpsonville PD served a search warrant at the Robinson residence.
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It was a normal family home other than the number of Wi-Fi cameras, which was weird.
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There was at least one camera in every room. some rooms had two cameras but when asked if they recorded
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the police were told they were live view only Ari told officers her adoption lawyer advised her
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not to talk to the cops without counsel but she had nothing to hide so she said she would answer
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any questions they had that should give you a clue as to the intelligence and narcissism
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of this person She said that the day before the incident, Tori had thrown up on the way to church,
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which wasn't concerning because Tori often threw up after eating or drinking too quickly.
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After church, she seemed fine. She took a bath and went to bed like normal. She reiterated the day of the incident started like most days, with a pancake breakfast.
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Afterward, Tori drank an unusual amount of water before complaining of not feeling well.
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This time, however, she admitted Tori was not choking, but rather acting like she wanted to throw up when Ari decided to perform the Heimlich.
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After running through all the events again, Ari sat down at her computer and began to work.
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When asked what she was doing, she said she was working on her next comedy skit and invited the officer to check her out online.
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So, just to reiterate for a second, less than 24 hours after Tori was pronounced dead, Ari was working on jokes and promoting herself.
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four days later the police would serve two arrest warrants for ari and austin they were out there
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heavy and it was more than one car more than two cars every day there was more cars as the news of
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little tory's death spread those that knew the robinsons were surprised well i told you something
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was going on up there with all the forensics but i didn't expect this i definitely said something
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mom something happened it's sad because that was a beautiful little girl she was beautiful
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it was shocking because no one that knew ari and austin would ever expect a child in their care
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to die it's not her character like you if you see her she's such a bubbly person she's making you
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laugh even if she's upset she's gonna make you laugh her family is amazing they didn't
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they just i don know it just kind of strikes me in surprise she always wanted a blended family and a huge family She loves kids To be on the outside looking in we don know the full story of course I hoping we can get the full story but I just rest in peace to that beautiful baby girl
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By all accounts, the Robinsons were your typical family, albeit a large family. Ari was funny, and they were both polite.
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She was a former teacher and now spent her life trying to make others laugh, laugh while Austin took care of the kids.
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The whole idea that they abused a child was entirely out of character. Tori's former foster family only felt sadness and disbelief.
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She just had so much to offer. She's going to be missed by many, many, many people.
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I still can't believe that it's true. I just feel like maybe we'll all wake up and it'll be a bad dream.
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At the time of their arrest, the police didn't know what exactly happened to Tori.
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They only knew that she was dead, and it didn't happen because of drinking too much water.
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Neither Ari or Austin, or both, were responsible. Tori's biological family didn't need to know who or why to know that her death should never have happened.
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I can't imagine what she would have done. to make somebody so upset. Victoria's not the first child,
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and she hasn't been the last one. There have been deaths since then within this system.
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But we're doing our best to stop that, and we're doing it in Victoria's honor. Our family is very staunch in our belief
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that we don't think the DSS system needs to be dismantled. It is there for a reason,
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and there are children that need to be saved, but there are some gaps, there are some cracks.
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And this tragedy happened because of those gaps and those cracks. And that's the part that we want to see fixed.
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There were 50,000 strong here and saying that this should not have happened. And here's the things that we have seen within the system that are flawed.
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And we would like to work with you to make sure that this doesn't happen again. There is no room for error in this system.
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This is the system that cannot fail. They got nearly 50,000 signatures to petition the state to create Victoria's Law
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that would revise the DSS procedure for accepting new foster families. They want the screening process to be more thorough
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by conducting psychological evaluations of prospective foster parents. Everyone was wondering how this could have happened.
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and soon it would all be revealed. The day they were both arrested, Austin wasn't actually at home.
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He was on his first day at a new job that his neighbor had found for him. So after Ari was arrested, Austin was contacted and told to come home.
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When he arrived 20 minutes later, he too was arrested. He immediately declined to speak without an attorney.
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Once at the station for booking, he made two utterances. First, he asked if he had to be in a cell with his wife.
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When the officer said no, but the cell was directly next to hers, he made a second utterance.
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He said he didn't want to be anywhere near her. two weeks later austin's attorney reached out to the police and said he was ready to make a
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statement austin told a completely different story of course police responded to 515 selwood circle
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within greenville county and found three-year-old victoria rose smith unresponsive and badly injured
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co-defendant ariel robinson told first responders that they thought tory was drinking too much water
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But firefighters saw unexplained, excessive bruising all over Tori's body. Deep purple bruising on her abdomen, bruising on her ear, bruising down her back, and up and down both of her legs.
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She told police that the night before, Tori had thrown up on the way to church. Ariel Robinson said after church, they ate pizza at home and Tori seemed fine.
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They went to bed with no issues, she said. The next morning on January 14, 2021, Ariel said Tori woke up, ate pancakes while she and this defendant were home alone with the child, and the other four children were at school.
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Ariel Robinson said Tori kept asking for water, and this defendant filled up her cup five or six times.
00:34:53
She also said Tori said her stomach hurt and that she was cold. She gave her a heated blanket and was holding Tori when Ariel Robinson said the child went limp.
00:35:04
Ariel Robinson then said she tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver because she thought the child was choking.
00:35:10
While police were on the scene, this defendant maintained Ariel Robinson's account of what happened to Tori.
00:35:16
Ari's story set off a lot of red flags in the minds of the police. They couldn't believe she was that oblivious to the real reason Tori was dying on the floor.
00:35:29
And it wasn't from drinking too much water, by the way. Several days later, they were both arrested.
00:35:36
After the arrest, Austin Robinson's attorney contacted the state and stated that his client wished to make a statement.
00:35:43
No promises were given to this defendant and the phone call was on this defendant's accord.
00:35:48
The defendant came in voluntarily and met with police to tell what had really happened to Tori.
00:35:53
Austin felt ashamed and guilty about Tori death and wanted to come clean so he volunteered the truth to the police rather than use it as a bargaining chip for lesser charges He said he had not physically
00:36:07
ever hurt Tori, but that his wife would spank and beat her. Austin Robinson said Ariel Robinson
00:36:13
hit Tori with different things, including a belt, paddle, flip-flop, hand, or whatever.
00:36:19
He said Tori got the worst of it for some reason when Ariel would become angry over eating habits, such as Tori taking too long.
00:36:27
Austin became emotional when he told the police that Ari's reasoning for spanking the three-year-old
00:36:33
was to make her tough. He went on to say she often felt bad after the spankings and would
00:36:41
put ice packs on the little girl's bruises. He told police how Ariel had become angry the night
00:36:47
before Tori's death because she threw up on herself on the way to church. Austin explained that Ari was first annoyed at the three-year-old,
00:36:56
not being able to buckle herself into her car seat. When Austin reached back to help her, it pissed off Ari even more.
00:37:06
On the way to church, Tori was eating some food, and Ari was pressuring the little girl to finish by the time they got there.
00:37:14
To avoid punishment, she shoved the food in her face, gagged, and vomited on herself.
00:37:21
While Ari tried to find replacement clothes for little Tori, a task that took her to a big box store only to realize she didn't have her credit card,
00:37:31
Austin took the rest of the kids into the church. When they finally joined them, after borrowing some clothes from her sister,
00:37:40
everything seemed fine. But that evening, while Austin was giving Tori a bath, he noticed big bruises on her back that weren't there before.
00:37:54
He believed Ari hit Tori when she was changing her clothes in the parking lot. The next morning, this defendant said it all started when Ariel was fussing at Tori
00:38:05
for not eating her pancakes fast enough, and that Ariel had put Tori on a timer.
00:38:10
All she ever told me was that the little girl was a handful, and that the girl could give her trouble eating,
00:38:18
but that she would, you know, she'd be able to take care of it just little by little.
00:38:22
She would be really patient, as patient as she could be. She did say that her parents were strict bringing her up, but that it was good for her.
00:38:37
Austin explained that Tori ate fine when it was just him and her. This upset Ari.
00:38:45
So when Tori took too long to eat, Ari would give her three chances. She would set a timer on her phone for two minutes.
00:38:54
When the timer ended, that was the first warning. She then would reset the timer for one minute.
00:39:02
When that timer ended, that was the second warning. Then she would set a timer for 30 seconds.
00:39:11
When that timer was up, if the food wasn't gone, Tori would get a spanking. And what were you doing outside the house?
00:39:21
I was putting up, doing a little yard work, basically just taking, I just let my van get towed off and all that stuff.
00:39:29
I was trying to get that fixed. But other than that, I was just trying to pick up, like, stuff from the backyard to the far yard and move to the front at that time.
00:39:36
When you were outside the house that morning, what did you hear? I heard Tori screaming and crying.
00:39:44
What was Tori screaming and crying about? Basically just getting frustrated by her mother, getting a whooping for night in her food.
00:39:52
And I'm sorry, you said a whooping? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Had you ever heard this before?
00:39:58
Yes, ma'am. Can you speak a little louder? Yes, ma'am. So you were outside, you heard this whooping happening.
00:40:05
Yes, ma'am. Why did you not walk inside? Austin was non-confrontational. Even the neighbors said that Ari was the leader of the house and that Austin was more passive.
00:40:17
He said Ari would get physical with him as well and showed them a scar on his shoulder where she had stabbed him.
00:40:26
By the time I did walk in there, it was as if nothing was going on. I said she was seemingly okay at the time.
00:40:35
Okay. That morning when Tori woke up, was she fine? Yes, ma'am. All right. So at some point, do you walk inside to see what's going on with this whooping that's happening to Tori?
00:40:46
Yes, ma'am. And when you walked inside, what, if anything, did you see? I saw the bruising.
00:40:51
You saw the bruising. Yes, ma'am. Who was in the house when you came inside and saw the bruising on Tori?
00:40:57
Ariel was. Can you speak up? Ariel was. And can you tell the court what, if anything, was Ariel holding at that time?
00:41:05
It was a belt. And what, if anything, was Tori doing at that time? She was crying.
00:41:10
What was Tori wearing? Nothing. Nothing. So you saw the bruising? Yes, ma'am. What did you say, if anything, to Ariel Robinson when you walked in?
00:41:20
I just told her that it had gone too far, that we had gone too far this time. I should have stopped it.
00:41:28
Austin carried on doing his daily chores while his wife berated the little girl.
00:41:35
Finally, when he realized the whooping was lasting a lot longer than normal, he went to investigate.
00:41:42
He found Ari standing over little Tori, holding a belt and yelling in her face. You're done? You're done?
00:41:51
You don't get to tell me when you're done. It was then he noticed more bruises on the little girl who was only wearing a diaper Ari response to his comments about going too far this time was
00:42:07
Now look, you got your dad upset. Like before, Ari snapped out of her rage and suddenly felt sympathy for her soon-to-be daughter.
00:42:18
They decided to try and give her an Epsom salt bath to soothe her bruises. while Austin went to buy children's Tylenol.
00:42:29
She was already complaining about her stomach hurting. She basically just tried to walk up the steps with air,
00:42:37
went to go try to give her a bath, and told her to walk up the steps, but she fell,
00:42:43
and she tried to walk the rest of the way. Why did she fall? From the what? From the beating.
00:42:50
I'm sorry, what? From the beating. So she walks upstairs after falling. What happened then?
00:42:58
I let her go get Tom out while I tried to soak her in the bathtub. When he returned, Ari had Tori out of the bath and wrapped in an electric blanket.
00:43:09
When Ari held the little girl, she involuntarily defecated twice. After that, little Tori did ask for a lot of water and drank more than normal, but nothing was making her stomach feel any better.
00:43:26
Ari asked her if she felt like she needed to throw up and she said yes. Then Tori vomited in the trash can.
00:43:34
That was when she went limp and Ari tried the Heimlich maneuver before giving up and just pressing on her stomach really hard to expel more water.
00:43:46
Then Austin finally called 911, but only after asking Ari if he should. We are thankful that he has cooperated with prosecution and is working with them to make sure that Ariel is held responsible to the fullest extent of South Carolina law allows for this case.
00:44:10
But we just wish he had done something sooner. He also admitted that Ari deleted all the footage from the cameras and even the app itself.
00:44:19
When they checked Ari's phone to confirm some of his claims, they were unable to recover the account for the cameras, but they did notice something else.
00:44:31
Ari's timer was set to 30 seconds. Of course, his admission made him responsible for Tori's death also, but it was just Austin's word against Ari's at this point.
00:44:45
all of the facts would have to be sorted out in trial. Meanwhile, Tori's biological family wanted her body
00:44:56
so they could finally put her to rest. Nobody in my family is holding up well. The emotions in this family are very raw.
00:45:05
If something was taken from you and then hurt the way that it was hurt, and all you want to do is lay their soul to rest,
00:45:12
I mean, if it was your family, what would you do? That's what I want to say. If it was somebody that mattered to you, wouldn't you want the right to bury your family the way that I want to bury my daughter?
00:45:21
Let us give her a proper funeral and say goodbye just one last time. We love you and we're so sorry this happened to you.
00:45:34
But I promise you, we are not resting until it's right. Casey, Tori's biological mother, didn't stop there with her efforts in this case.
00:45:46
She went on to speak at Ari's bond hearing in a victim impact statement. Your Honor, I'm Casey Ferris.
00:45:55
On Thursday, January the 14th of 2021, my three-year-old daughter of Victoria Rose was taken from this earth.
00:46:02
My family and I have been devastated by her passing. and it's because of this that we present the request that you did not bond for the defendant.
00:46:13
Thank you so much for being here, ma'am, and I'm just so sorry for your loss and my condolences to you and your family.
00:46:23
Thank you. After that teary-eyed statement, Ari's defense lawyer tried to convince the judge
00:46:30
that Ari deserved release on bond. Imagine that. She's 29 years old. She's lived her entire life in Greenwood County in the upstate.
00:46:41
She's a graduate from Landry University with a degree in communications. She also holds a master's degree in education from Clemson University.
00:46:51
She was a middle school teacher from 2016 to 2019 here in the upstate. She had been the children's director at her church for seven years.
00:47:02
She was an assistant coach, was an assistant coach for an upstate middle school basketball team.
00:47:08
She volunteered as a coach at the YMCA at Simpsonville for a couple of years. She was until recently on the PTA board at an upstate elementary school here in Greenwood County.
00:47:22
She volunteered at career fairs, character building workshops at two different schools in the upstate.
00:47:27
Your Honor, essentially, she'd been heavily involved in the community her entire life.
00:47:32
Even with All the good she did in life, the death of Tori, overshadowed it all. Based on the seriousness of the charges and the egregious nature of the allegations in this case,
00:48:13
Mr. Bouton, I respectfully deny bond. All right, thank you. Ari, attending the bond hearing via Zoom, collapsed on the table in defeat
00:48:23
when she heard that she wasn't getting out before trial. Austin, however, would be released on house arrest.
00:48:57
The tragic death of three-year-old Tori led to a troubling look into the home of the Robinsons.
00:49:13
According to Austin, Ari was a tyrannical mother to their soon-to-be adopted little girl that exacted punishment quickly and fiercely.
00:49:24
A child was dead far too soon, a family shattered, and a husband and wife pitted against each other.
00:49:35
Austin would be charged with aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse. Even with the threat of 10 to 20 years in prison, Austin further asserted he was telling the truth about Ari by pleading guilty and forgoing a jury trial.
00:49:52
But at Ari's trial, they would both take the stand and point the finger at each other.
00:50:00
The evidence in this case is that the substance of the charge is that Ariel Robinson is charged with causing the death of a child under the age of 11 by child abuse or neglect under circumstances that exhibit an extreme indifference to human life.
00:50:18
And you hear the devastating series of events that go from Tori trying to eat some pancakes to a child beaten to a pulp.
00:50:30
The trial dissected every aspect of Ari's claim of what actually happened. They found a witness at church that overheard Ari talking to Tori in the bathroom.
00:50:44
I heard Ariel say, oh, you're cold, you're cold. Girls that make themselves throw up deserve to be cold.
00:50:51
I just remember thinking, oh no, I wonder why she's talking to her in that kind of tone.
00:50:57
Oh, I didn't say those exact words, no. They also found surveillance footage at the church.
00:51:03
It showed Ari hurrying Tori out of the bathroom and into the parking lot. As soon as they passed the threshold of the door, Ari jerked the near-nude toddler by her arm.
00:51:15
She grabbed the little girl and carried her to the car, not like a child, but sideways across both of her arms.
00:51:26
The most important thing noticed in the video is the lack of bruises on little Tori.
00:51:33
And the bruises were a big part of this case. This is extensive, dependent bruising on a child's body that was inflicted repetitively by blunt force trauma, which is the worst I've seen.
00:51:51
It was determined that all of the bruises were made at the same time. There was no previous incident with her older brothers.
00:52:00
This fact is further supported by interviews done with the Robinson children who confirmed their mother would use a belt to discipline them.
00:52:11
So this isn't what we think of as a traditional bruise of the skin. This is a severe, deep injury that's tearing tissue from tissue and allowing blood to collect within the tissues underneath the skin.
00:52:26
Little Torrey's cause of death was internal bleeding. Her legs were beaten so badly that the skin separated from the muscle and blood pooled.
00:52:38
The trapped blood couldn make its way back to her heart What the last thing you recall towards saying to you She was laying on the bed before she got picked back up and she told me she loved me and I said I love you too I said I promise
00:53:03
this won't happen again. She said okay and I said I love you and she said I love you too and she had a
00:53:09
Keep waiting, saying I love you too. And that was the last thing she said to me.
00:53:16
Austin expressed remorse and deep sadness. He regretted the reason he didn't call 911 sooner.
00:53:24
I was scared. I was trying to protect her. On day four of the trial, Ari took the stand in her own defense.
00:53:36
How did it make you feel to have a little girl in the house? It made me feel really good.
00:53:41
It made me feel a lot more girly because I'm Tori. What kind of child was Tori? I'm sorry.
00:53:59
Sorry. Tori was perfect. She was a perfect child. She didn't have a lot of behavior issues. Real easy to get along with.
00:54:18
Did you spoil your kids? Yeah, especially for Tori. It was easy because she was the baby girl.
00:54:28
I was a baby in my family, so I always played favorites with the baby anyways. And it was real easy because she was a girl, the only girl.
00:54:37
So, yeah, we had a good relationship. She was my mini-me. She would talk like me, act like me.
00:54:48
She wanted to go everywhere I went. She wouldn't do everything I did. She placed all the blame squarely on Austin's shoulders.
00:54:58
A guilty woman blaming a man for her own actions. That's new. And you would agree, because you've seen the pictures, that Victoria was beaten to a pulp, correct?
00:55:10
I would agree with that. Do you believe she caused a bruising arm style from the CPO?
00:55:17
No. It's either you or Austin, correct? I would say so. I think Austin has one of the scariest type of anger issues because he holds everything in and he doesn't let it out.
00:55:32
And then when it does come out, it's too much because he bottles it up. But a social media post for Father's Day by Ari would contradict that claim.
00:55:43
This is a little Father's Day post you did for Austin, correct? Correct. There's not a daddy-daughter duo in the world who love each other more than these two right here.
00:55:53
The Post went on to say that the kids needed discipline. And I know that will never come from you.
00:56:01
Happy Father's Day, babe. Love you bunches. The whole trial boiled down to one thing.
00:56:08
Who do you believe, Austin or Ariel? I think we can probably admit that the evidence dictates that one of these two people committed this crime.
00:56:17
Less than an hour and a half later, the jury returned the verdict. The state of South Carolina v. Ariel S. Robinson.
00:56:27
As to the charge of homicide by child abuse, we, the jury, unanimously find a defendant guilty of homicide by child abuse.
00:56:35
Almost immediately after the judge delivered Ari's sentence. I think medical testimony in this case was incredibly heartbreaking.
00:56:45
and for folks who deal in the emergency room and who serve us in that way and folks who deal with children in the most critical of situations,
00:56:57
for them to say that this was substantially worse than anything they had seen, I think that has to put something into perspective for you.
00:57:08
I can say that in my 13, 14 years of being a judge, I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like this.
00:57:20
Not even approaching it. And what compounds it is that I understand what your attorney is saying.
00:57:29
Perhaps you snapped at that moment but then why Then why let this child suffer and not get her medical attention that she desperately needed as she lay dying in her own bedroom Based upon all that the
00:57:45
sentence to the court cannot be anything but life in prison. Thank you. Tori's biological family who attended the trial were overjoyed by the outcome.
00:57:57
We were just here as representation for Victoria. And then, you know, that she was loved.
00:58:07
We just want to thank everyone from the police, the first responders, the nurses, the doctors, the Christy and her team, the jury.
00:58:16
Everyone, thank you guys so much. But they still had anger in their hearts. They thought Ari got what she deserved and were thankful that Austin did the right thing.
00:58:29
He just did it too late. Honestly, I'd like to see him get his maximum as well. 20 years.
00:58:36
Knowing that, I mean, he is just as responsible. He could have stopped it. He didn't.
00:58:39
You said that you knew that she'd been beaten on, that your wife had been doing this.
00:58:42
For the safety of your own kids, if anything, why didn't you stop that? Because it could have turned from my child to your child very quickly.
00:58:49
I just feel like as a parent, you should have said something. During Austin's sentencing, he addressed the court in an attempt to be treated with mercy.
00:58:59
And now the day goes by where I don't still think about Tor. There's nothing I wouldn't do to go back and change things, even though I know I can't.
00:59:11
I live there, and I still do. I wish I would have handled things differently in college sooner, but I was terrified, scared.
00:59:23
I didn't think that things were at that magnitude, that they weren't too late. And I have to live with that and do live with that every day of my life.
00:59:34
Torres family, I am truly, truly sorry for all of this. And I hope and pray that one day y'all can forgive me.
00:59:43
Austin begged for the sake of his own children, for the judge to consider sentencing him to 10 to 20 years,
00:59:52
but leaving him on house arrest. It was no use, though. The judge cited all the opportunities that he had to help,
01:00:01
to call 911, to do anything. But he didn't. He was aware of ongoing abuse, and he did nothing.
01:00:12
In the end, and probably rightfully so, he was sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in prison.
01:00:22
These little boys, Tori's brothers, biological brothers, you know, they're back in the system and God knows what kind of family they're going to be put with.
01:00:31
And my sons, wherever they are, I just I love you guys so much. And I hope that I hope y'all can feel me with you because I just I'm thinking about you guys all the time.
01:00:40
And then Ariel's children, her biological children, are also in the system now because both of her parents, you know, both of their parents are in jail.
01:00:51
They're in prison. The death of Tori led to two families being torn apart. Ari's kids will never see their mother outside of prison walls.
01:01:04
And they will likely be in their 30s when Austin is released at the age of 54. Even after the trial was all said and done, those that knew the Robinsons, that knew Ari, were still in disbelief.
01:01:21
I'm torn because part of me wants her to get the help that she needs, but the other part is just like,
01:01:27
God damn, I hope you fucking burn in hell forever. It's a whole mixed bag of emotions and feelings and thoughts.
01:01:35
I'm really trying to contain my anger because... Erica tried to contain it, but did succumb to the anger.
01:01:44
It's bullshit. Like, why the fuck do you want to have a baby if this is what the fuck you're going to do to it?
01:01:50
What the fuck is wrong with you? Why? Why are you fucking doing it? Why would you fucking do this?
01:01:55
Why? Why? And I'm pissed off at the husband, too, because you know what? Be a goddamn man and stand up for that baby and go save her.
01:02:05
because he could have intervened. And what did he do? He stayed out of it. Like he had no part of it.
01:02:11
Like, what the fuck? I do know that she's going to get, she's going to get, she going to get hers in prison because you know they don take well to child molesters and child killers So I know she going to get hers and I hope she gets good I really do
01:02:31
Ari seemed to have it all. She was an educated and successful teacher before quitting to follow
01:02:39
her dream, only to be successful at that as well. She won a nationally televised cooking show.
01:02:48
and was awarded $25,000, not to mention the boost in reputation and publicity. She desperately wanted a little girl
01:02:58
and was given one by the state. She got everything that she wanted, but couldn't hold on to it.
01:03:08
Maybe she harbored a deep anger behind her comedic facade, or maybe seven kids were just too much to handle,
01:03:17
and she snapped. We'll never know. All we know for sure is that Ari focused her anger almost entirely on little innocent Tori.
01:03:29
People, just love your kids. Just love your kids. If you're angry, if you're pissed off about something, go take it off on something else.
01:03:39
Babies are innocent. Just leave the babies alone. Amen. The Food Network removed the entire 20th season of Worst Cooks in America after the truth about Ari came out.
01:03:54
The biological family of Tory is still trying to make Victoria's Law a reality. Appreciate it.
01:04:02
Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you and it's great to see you back on social media.
01:04:06
Oh God, stop it. I'm horrible on social media. But thank you. Thank you very much.
01:04:11
I don't know what else there is to say about stories like this. I know we've covered a few of them.
01:04:18
And they almost start to sound like the same story retold over and over again. There's clearly a problem here in America with child abuse.
01:04:33
And the voices of these innocent children goes mostly silent. Until it's too late.
01:04:44
So if you suspect child abuse anywhere in your social circle, please call the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD or 1-800-422-4453.
01:05:07
You can also go to childhelp.org All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24-7 in more than 170 languages.
01:05:24
The stories we tell go out there to hundreds of thousands of people. But unless you act, then it's all for naught.
01:05:34
so please remember children are innocent and they need our help so if you know of something going wrong
01:05:47
in someone's home if you suspect a child is being hurt please speak up Well, thank you so much for joining us.
01:06:20
We really appreciate you here. If you haven't already, check out Certain Scale Nightmares.
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