First responders doubted SC Food Network star’s story about dead child’s injuries, trial reveals

After a firefighter trying to save the life of a 3-year-old South Carolina foster child was told her brother had made deep, dark bruises over much of her legs, he thought the injuries could not have been made by a child.

“It looked way too bad,” Simpsonville firefighter Beau Gibbens said.

He testified in the second day of a homicide by child abuse trial of the foster mother Ariel Robinson that when he arrived the child, Victoria Smith, had no heartbeat and was not breathing.

In a series of testimonies from several of the first responders on the scene on Jan. 14, 2021, the prosecution attempted to paint a picture of a frantic effort to save the girl’s life as Robinson sat calmly in a chair in the girl’s room or stood downstairs.

Robinson repeatedly told them the child had drunk a lot of water and choked, then went limp.

At one point, paramedic Ken Koller asked Robinson in an incredulous tone, “All of this bruising is caused by her brother?”

She responded that Victoria’s bruises on her stomach were caused by her attempting to do CPR and the rest by the brother, who had anger issues.

In court, Koller testified that he believed that much bruising had to be caused by an adult.

Koller said he administered six doses of epinephrine directly into a bone in Victoria’s leg and could not regain a heartbeat. Paramedics continued CPR all the way to the hospital, where doctors and nurses were standing by.

She was pronounced dead in the children’s ICU at Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Photos taken by Simpsonville Police at the hospital of the extensive injuries to Victoria’s legs and abdomen were shown several times during Tuesday’s session.

Christy Sustkovitch, the lead prosecutor on the case, told the jury during her opening statement Monday that Victoria’s cause of death was blood pooling in her legs that could not get back to the heart.

Victoria and her two older brothers had been in the custody of Ariel and Austin Robinson for less than a year. The Robinsons were scheduled to adopt them a few days after Victoria died.

Ariel Robinson has been held in the Greenville County Detention Center since her arrest. Austin Robinson pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse and has been free on bond. He faces 10 to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced after the trial.

Ariel Robinson won the Food Network television show “Worst Cooks in America” in August 2020.

Austin Robinson called 911 at 2:45 p.m. Jan. 14, saying Victoria was choking on water. A video shown in court showed him buying children’s Tylenol around 1 p.m. at a CVS that day.

Austin Robinson said during his plea the child was eating pancakes when the incident occurred. He was outside and heard his wife yelling. He went to see her holding a belt over Victoria.

Austin Robinson told investigators his wife scolded Victoria, saying “You’re not done. You don’t get to tell me when you’re done.”

He told his wife, “You’ve gone to far this time.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 2:03 PM.