Care devil
Gets 4 years in beating death of Bronx tot
CARLYLE Williamson, after watching a judge sentence a day care owner in the killing of his little boy, laid bare the lingering heartache from the 2014 beating.
“Never got to take him trickor-treating, Halloween,” said Williamson, 58, after Athena Skeeter was sentenced in Bronx Criminal Court on Tuesday to 11/3 to four years in prison.
“Doing a real good birthday where he understands,” the distraught dad continued. “I missed all that. I missed all them Kodak moments.”
Williamson and the boy’s mother choked back tears as Skeeter stood mere feet away in the courtroom where Judge Miriam Best imposed sentence in the death of 20-month-old Cardell Williamson.
In a strange twist, the defendant — who took a March 2 manslaughter plea deal — could walk out of prison in the very near future.
Skeeter (photo inset) has already served more than two years behind bars since her arrest, above the minimum term of 16 months. The state parole Board will determine her release date — or if she does all four years. The Bronx district attorney’s office said Williamson and Cardell’s mother, Thomasina Cheatham, signed off on the deal allowing Skeeter to plead down from a murder charge. “Three years of misery’s enough for me,” Williamson explained. “I’m just trying to maintain my sanity, what I have left, and move on to the next battle.”
Little Cardell was killed in August 2014 while under the care of Skeeter, 42, a state-licensed day care provider. She admitted fatally stomping the little boy during a bizarre wrestling match at her in-home day care center.
Skeeter placed the mortally injured boy into a scalding hot tub after throwing the child on a hardwood floor and stomping on his stomach.
She also acknowledged throwing her own son on top of Cardell — and then stepping on both boys three more times.
Skeeter declined to speak, but her lawyer angered Cheatham by claiming that Skeeter “loved Cardell Williamson as much as anybody in this room.”
Cheatham, 35, said the comment added to her continuing sadness. “It was unbelievable,” she said. “Everything felt like a lie to me. I don’t understand why they would say that.”