Robert H. Robinson, 26 charged with murder of 3 mo old Zyanna Bruto/5.20.2013 Robinson sentenced to 20 yrs

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Mother’s baby-sitting boyfriend charged in infant’s death

By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch Tuesday January 3, 2012 7:13 AM

An East Side man has been charged in the death of his girlfriend’s 3-month-old daughter in Whitehall.

Robert H. Robinson, 26, of 861 E. Mound St., is charged with murder in the death of Zyanna Bruton at her mother’s apartment at 425 S. Yearling Rd., Whitehall police detective Steven E. Brown said yesterday.

Paramedics went to the apartment at 6:25 p.m. Friday after being told a child was having a seizure. They pronounced the infant dead at the scene.

An autopsy determined that the baby died of a skull fracture caused by blunt-force trauma, Brown said.

Robinson was alone with Zyanna and her 3-year-old brother and 1-year-old sister when she was injured, Brown said.

Robinson and the children’s mother, 25-year-old Stephanie Bruton, had been dating for about five weeks, and he had been assisting her by baby-sitting, Brown said.

Bruton’s two surviving children were removed from her home and placed with relatives by Franklin County Children Services, the detective said.

Robinson, who was arrested on Saturday, is scheduled to appear in Franklin County Municipal Court this morning.

His bond has not been set.

Stephanie Bruton was too devastated to attend today's sentencing hearing for the former boyfriend who killed her 3-month-old daughter while babysitting the child in Whitehall.

A sister spoke on her behalf in Franklin County Common Pleas Court before Robert H. Robinson was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the beating death of Zyanna Bruton.

“It has totally destroyed my sister,” Ashia Bruton told Judge David W. Fais.

The mother marked the baby’s first birthday by visiting the gravesite, she said, and has struggled to explain to her two other children, ages 2 and 4, why they can’t see their sister.

“We’ll never see her talk, we’ll never see her walk, we’ll never see her grow up,” Ashia Bruton said. “It kind of feels like we’ve been robbed of that.”

Robinson, 27, declined to make a statement during the hearing. His attorney, Mark Collins, told the judge that Robinson is “deeply regretful for his actions” but is not ready to discuss what he did.

“The issues he has are not allowing him to verbalize and say what he wants to say to the family and to the court,” Collins said.

Robinson has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, Collins said, but a Netcare psychologist determined that he understood the wrongfulness of his actions and the charges against him.

He pleaded guilty on Jan. 30 to one count each of involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and child endangering.

The mother left the baby and her two other children in Robinson’s care at a S. Yearling Road apartment for about five hours on Dec. 30, 2011. When she returned, Robinson told her the baby was asleep in her crib. Minutes later, he went to check on the baby and returned to say she was having a seizure.

Paramedics responded to a 911 call and found the infant dead. An autopsy determined that the baby suffered multiple skull fractures, bleeding in the brain and retinal hemorrhages, and was dead before the mother came home.

Fais imposed the sentence recommended by the prosecution and defense in a plea agreement.

Ashia Bruton told the judge that the family supported the sentence. “We would not want anything less,” she said.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]