Bond set for SC man accused of killing his 3-year-old foster daughter

Circuit Court Judge Letitia Verdin granted a $150,000 bond Friday for a Simpsonville man accused of killing a 3-year-old in his custody and placed him on house arrest.

Jerry Austin Robinson and his wife, Ariel Robinson, winner of a Food Network cooking show, are charged in the death of Victoria Rose Smith, who they were fostering. Smith’s adoption hearing was scheduled for the day the Robinsons were arrested, a few days after the child was found unresponsive in the family home on Jan. 14.

The judge ordered him to wear a monitor and not have contact with anyone under 18.

Michelle Urps, spokesperson for Victoria’s biological family who was in the courtroom Friday, said she is angry Robinson was granted bond.

“He could have stopped this the second it started,” she said.

She also was upset at the information revealed in court by Assistant Solicitor Christy Sustakovitch that Ariel Robinson beat Victoria because she did not eat her pancakes quick enough.

Verdin denied Ariel Robinson bond in February, citing the severity of the crime and that she considered Robinson a flight risk..

Jerry Austin Robinson, who goes by Austin, has been cooperating with the prosecution.

His attorney, Lucas Marchant, withdrew an earlier motion seeking bond but reinstated it and asked for a $50,000 bond.

Austin Robinson was the one who called 911 and reported Victoria, known as Tori, was choking on water. Emergency personnel took her to Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Sustakovitch told the court at Ariel Robinson’s hearing that Victoria had bruises all over her body — stomach, legs, head, arms, neck and back.

Austin Robinson told investigators that when he saw the child in distress that day, he told his wife, “You’ve gone too far.”

In a statement to investigators, Austin Robinson told officers his wife would hit Victoria with anything — “a belt, paddle, flip flop or whatever,” Sustakovitch said in Ariel Robinson’s hearing.

He said he went to the store to get medicine that would mute the bruises, and investigators have store video of him doing that.

Ariel Robinson blamed Tori’s death on one of her biological brothers. The Robinsons were in the process of adopting Tori and both her older brothers. The Robinsons also have two biological children.

The Robinsons were arrested Jan. 19 on charges of homicide by child abuse. A coroner’s report said Victoria’s cause of death was blunt-force trauma.

Ariel Robinson was an aspiring comedian who won Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America” television show last August. Her husband worked as a delivery driver. Both were active on social media, posting about their family, especially Tori.

Photos of Tori’s carefully crafted braids and of her dressed in cute outfits were a mainstay on Ariel Robinson’s social pages. Most of Robinson’s social media has been taken down.

On the morning Victoria died, Ariel Robinson posted on Instagram, “If it didn’t break you, it can’t dictate you.” A little more than six hours later, emergency responders were at her house giving CPR to her daughter.

Ariel Robinson was a middle school English teacher in Laurens and Greenville counties. The State Board of Education suspended her certificate after she was arrested.

Urps said she believes the vetting process of the Department of Social Services is inadequate and is working on legislation to fix it.

“How did she get through?” Urps said.

Court records show their house was in foreclosure proceedings.

Urps said she would like to see psychological testing, CPR training and a financial audit completed by an independent party before children can be adopted in South Carolina.

“They promised us she would be safe,” Uprs said.

This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 12:38 PM.