Evidence reviewed in trial for SC Food Network star accused of killing child. What we learned

Jurors in the case of a former Food Network winner accused of killing her foster daughter were shown photos of massive bruises on the girl’s back, legs and stomach taken shortly before she died.

Jay Weibel, an investigator with the Simpsonville Police Department, testified he took the photos at the hospital, where 3-year-old Victoria Smith was taken after emergency crews responded to the home of Ariel and Austin Robinson.

Ariel Robinson is on trial this week in Greenville, charged with homicide by child abuse. Her husband, Austin Robinson, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse last month and is expected to testify against his wife.

The bruises on the girl’s body covered much of her thighs and down her legs and were so dark they looked black in the pictures.

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

The prosecution also showed a video of an interview with Ariel Robinson from the body camera of Crp. Karlee Patrikis of the Simpsonville Police Department.

Robinson told the officer she caused the bruises on Victoria’s stomach and side after the girl began choking on water. Robinson said she inexpertly tried to do CPR on the child.

During the interview with Patrikis, Robinson’s demeanor was calm and at one point asked about a Simpsonville police officer she knew in high school.

Robinson told the officer the bruises on Victoria’s legs were done by Victoria’s 7-year-old brother, an allegation Weibel said investigators did not take seriously. Weibel said administrators and a counselor at the boy’s school said he had hit and spit on other children at his previous school.

Robinson said the brother had counseling and was not as angry and violent as he had been, but struck Victoria in the weeks before she died.

Sustkovitch said in her opening statement the brother is small in stature and could not have made the bruises seen on Victoria’s body.

Victoria died on Jan. 14, 2021, less than a year after she and her two older brothers had been in the custody of the Robinsons.

Ariel Robinson has been held in the Greenville County Detention Center since her arrest a few days after Victoria died. Austin Robinson has been free on bond and 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.

Paramedics raced Victoria to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead that evening.

The child was eating pancakes when the incident occurred.

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

This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 5:48 PM.