The cruel reality star who beat her young foster daughter to death
Ariel Robinson snapped over three-year-old Victoria’s eating habits
Being terrible in the kitchen made Ariel Robinson a reality TV star. She found fame in 2020 by appearing in season 20 of Worst Cooks In America on the Food Network channel – a show that follows people with poor cooking skills as they compete in a series of bootcamp-style challenges overseen by celebrity chefs.
Robinson, from Greenville, South Carolina, was a middle school teacher with a sense of humour that led her to try her hand at stand-up comedy. And she was crowned the champion on Worst Cooks In America after showing the most improvement – walking away with a $25,000 prize.
Viewers discovered she was married to her childhood sweetheart, Jerry ‘Austin’ Robinson, and they shared two sons. She revealed the money would go towards her family – and the three white children she was adopting with her Black husband.
Robinson and Jerry fostered three-yearold Victoria ‘Tori’ Rose Smith and her two brothers, aged five and seven, and in January 2021 they were days away from officially adopting Victoria. They were a real poster couple for giving children a much-needed home, and becoming a reality TV winner gave Robinson a voice that she used on social media.
On 6 January, she tweeted that while her Black and white children were treated equally in their home, that might not be the case in the outside world. “It’s a shame that as a proud mom to 4 beautiful boys, I can’t protect them from the reality and evil of this world once they leave the house. However, I will fight and use my voice to make a difference,” she wrote.
“I’m a Mama Bear & I’ll do anything to protect my children & make sure their futures are equally bright.”
On the evening of 13 January, Robinson took Victoria to church. When she arrived, Victoria threw up down her dress and Robinson was seen in the bathroom, washing it out in the sink.
A member of the congregation asked if Victoria was unwell and Robinson told her that she had a habit of eating too much and making herself throw up. “It’s a game,” she said, as the little girl had to leave the building without a dress on.
Bruises all over her body
The next day, Jerry called 911 from their home and said there was an emergency with Victoria. “Our daughter is unresponsive,” he said. “She drank a lot of water. We tried to do CPR to get it out.”
When the paramedics arrived, they found Victoria unconscious on her bedroom floor. Robinson said she had downed a huge amount of liquid and she thought she may have choked.
The emergency responders spotted bruises all over Victoria’s body and Robinson suggested they had been caused by their CPR efforts. She then blamed them on one of Victoria’s brothers – a seven-year-old who she claimed had “anger issues”.
Victoria was rushed to hospital but her
Her injuries were so severe she could not be saved
injuries were so severe she could not be saved. Shockingly, an autopsy revealed that she had died from blunt force trauma and internal bleeding.
Victoria had been beaten so severely that her blood vessels had burst. The blood had collected in her muscles and body fat, restricting the blood flow to the heart, which had most likely stopped it being able to pump and led to her death.
The police questioned Robinson and Jerry. Robinson tried to blame Victoria’s brother, but it was clear he wasn’t physically capable of doing such damage. However, she and Jerry were.
Jerry then told investigators his wife had beaten Victoria. He said it had started when Victoria vomited in church, which had made his wife angry. She had made Victoria leave the building in just her underwear because her dress had been wet. It seemed cruel to not even wrap her in a coat or find something to keep her warm. Robinson was heard telling Victoria, “Oh, you’re cold. You’re cold. Girls that make themselves throw up deserve to be cold.”
On 19 January, Robinson and Jerry were arrested. Robinson’s TV fame meant the case made the headlines – and the Food Network removed the Worst Cooks In America series featuring her from circulation.
In April this year, Jerry, 35, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse and agreed to testify against his wife.
At Robinson’s four-day trial this year, Victoria’s graphic injuries were shown in court. Her biological family wore blue ribbons as a symbol of child abuse prevention and
were visibly upset by the harrowing evidence.
Jerry told the jury that Robinson would often lose her temper and it wasn’t unusual for her to be violent against Victoria.
He testified that Robinson would get especially angered by Victoria’s eating habits and beat her with a wooden paddle and belts.
‘Whooping’ lasted an hour
Jerry said the morning after the church incident, Robinson didn’t think Victoria was eating her pancakes fast enough and her frustrations grew. Jerry said it wasn’t the first time she had been furious about Victoria eating slowly. “Sometimes I’d eat a piece of her food to help her out,” he admitted.
Jerry said he had gone to do some work in the yard and his wife had given Victoria a “whooping” that he could hear from outside the house. It had lasted about an hour. He described walking in to find his wife beating Victoria with a belt.
“I told her, ‘You went too far this time and I should have stopped it,’” he said to the court.
Robinson took the stand in her defence and tearfully described Victoria as a “perfect child” who didn’t have any behavioural issues and was very easy to get along with. ”She was my mini-me,” she said on the stand. “She used to talk like me, act like me. She wanted to be everywhere I went.”
When asked about the incident in church, she testified that they had been running 15 minutes late on the 25-minute drive.
Robinson said she had seen Victoria eating chips and swigging water and then she had thrown up when she got to the church, and admitted she had been “frustrated”.
She also testified that they had set up cameras in their home because Victoria’s biological brother had “anger issues and would hit her”. However, the cameras only live-streamed
so they didn’t record the goings-on in the house.
Then, Robinson pointed the finger at her husband and said he had one of the “scariest types of anger issues”, adding, “He holds everything in, and he doesn’t let it out and when it does come it, it’s too much because he bottles it up.”
In closing arguments, the defence said Robinson’s husband had “cut a deal” for less time in prison and his testimony was not credible and could not be trusted. The prosecution said Robinson had “lost it” and was guilty. “The evidence is clear and if you believe her, she failed to act,” they said.
In May this year, Robinson, 30, was found guilty of homicide by child abuse and the judge admitted the case had been shocking. “In my 13 to 14 years as a judge, I’ve never seen anything like this. Not even approaching it,” she said, sentencing Robinson to life in jail.
In June, Jerry was sentenced. He said he thinks about Victoria every day and wishes he’d done things differently. “I am truly sorry for all of this,” he told her family. “I hope that one day you all can forgive me.”
The judge told him he’d failed Victoria and his own children, saying, “You didn’t go to stop it, you said, ‘She’s gone too far this time’ – that means there have been other times.”
Jerry got 20 years in prison.
Victoria’s biological family criticised social workers for not noticing the abuse. They claim they saw pictures of Victoria on social media and noticed bruising but nothing was done when they reported it.
The family is campaigning for reform and better screening for foster families.
George at Asda