Murderer Let Go Because Thought to Old to Kill Again
For almost three decades, Doreen and Dale Robie have lived with the anguish of that day in 1993 when they learned their adored lilliputian boy had been lured into the forest, strangled, and beaten with rocks. If that wasn't horrific enough, his killer was a red-headed, freckle-faced child.
"48 Hours" has been roofing the case since Eric Smith, xiii, was charged with killing iv-year-former Derrick Robie. Smith was tried as an developed and bedevilled of second-caste murder.
Smith's sentence was ix years to life. Merely it would also be a life sentence for the Robies in one case Smith became eligible for parole in 2002. "They could decide that well, now he'due south done his time and we're going to let him get," Doreen Robie told "48 Hours" correspondent Jim Axelrod.
The news the Robies had been dreading came after Eric Smith's 11th appearance earlier the board — when he was finally granted parole. Smith told WENY-Tv in 2009 he had big plans for his future. "I want to get married and heighten a family unit," Smith said. "Pursue the American dream."
John Tunney, who prosecuted Smith'southward example, says it's too early to know if that will happen.
"At the end of the day, it's still a lilliputian scrap of a hazard," Axelrod noted.
"Oh, no, no. It'south a huge gamble," Tunney replied. "This parole decision is a high-risk enterprise, to be sure."
AN UNTHINKABLE CRIME
Later on being locked up for 28 years, Eric Smith – who murdered a child as a teen– is gratis. He's out on parole in Queens, New York. Smith insists he's a changed man deserving of freedom; that he has a plan for a fresh beginning, even a fiancée. But others worry that Eric Smith is notwithstanding a flat-out threat.
Dale and Doreen Robie feared this twenty-four hours would come. Our story begins with them.
Dan Rather covered the case for" 48 Hours" when it first broke.
FROM 48 HOURS"' "WHY DID ERIC Impale" - 1994
In the summer of 1993, Derrick Robie and his family lived just down the street from this park in the small town of Savona, New York.
Dale Robie coached T-ball. It was his son Derrick's favorite game.
Doreen Robie: He'd become, "This one's for y'all, Mommy." Good task, Deej!
Derrick was all boy, all the fourth dimension.
Doreen Robie: You know, he was going to go me a dwelling house run and … he usually did.
Dale Robie: He loved it.
Derrick also attended a recreation programme at the park and Doreen Robie e'er watched as her son made the short trip. But 1 August morning Derrick's baby blood brother was crying, and Doreen Robie had her hands full.
Doreen Robie: Dalton was very fussy that morn and Derrick says, "It'south OK, Mom. I'll — I'll go by myself. You know, it's no trouble. The kids are probably going down the street."
Derrick was nearly v and knew the route very well. Then, Doreen Robie allowed him to walk past himself. She packed his lunch and off he went.
Doreen Robie: He gave me a osculation and I said, "I love you," and he says, "I love you, Mom."
Dan Rather: Then, he has a block — but a block to go?
Doreen Robie: Mm-hmm (affirms).
Dan Rather: No streets to cross.
Doreen Robie: No. It was a expressionless-finish street. The offset fourth dimension I've ever let him go anywhere lone.
A short time later on, as tempest clouds moved in, Doreen felt something close to panic.
Doreen Robie: I had an awful feeling.
It began to pour.
Doreen Robie: I swear that that was the moment that he died.
Dan Rather: You believe that?
Doreen Robie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I — I — I call back that he was letting me know.
Dale Robie: Derrick was very close to us. If in that location was any style he could tell united states he was leaving, he would have tried.
Doreen raced to the park to pick up Derrick. She was told that he had never arrived.
Nearly five hours later, searchers plant Derrick's body in a minor patch of woods, simply a few yards from the park and a few hundred yards from his own forepart door. Derrick had been choked and browbeaten to death with rocks. Neighbors placed a cross at the scene.
Doreen Robie: I've lost my boy. We've lost him. He's gone.
Dale Robie: The biggest matter I remember was – (to Doreen, too upset to go on) — become … go alee.
Doreen Robie (to Dale): That when you told your dad that you wouldn't exist able to do the things that he did with you?
The streets of Savona were empty as worried parents kept their children inside. The immediate supposition was that Derrick Robie's killer was a stranger from out of town. That'southward what Eric Smith'south granddaddy believed.
Red Wilson: When this terrible thing was done, everybody, including myself, thought it was an adult and how could anybody do such a terrible, terrible matter.
Eric Smith grew up simply across town and liked to spend fourth dimension with his grandparents, Cherry and Edie Wilson.
Ruby Wilson: He would always come up in and give us hugs and kisses.
Scarlet Wilson: He loved being a comic, liked clowning around.
Edie Wilson: He definitely wanted to be paid attention to.
Red Wilson: Yes.
But Eric's bright red hair and freckles fabricated him a target at school for years. And equally a teenager, he was seen pedaling effectually town for hours on end … lonely.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Why did he do it?
Helm WALTER DELAP: I don't know why he did it. … I asked him why he did it. His words, well-nigh verbatim, were, "I don't know. I merely saw this child, this blond kid, and I wanted to hurt him."
A Doubtable IN PLAIN SIGHT
On August 2, 1993, the body of Derrick Robie was found in a small patch of woods midway betwixt the park where he was headed and his home.
John Tunney (2004): It's difficult to embrace somebody doing what Eric Smith did.
John Tunney: He chose to end Derrick Robie's life. And he chose to exercise it in a style that was much more than merely killing.
Prosecutor John Tunney vividly remembers the crime scene and the brutality of the murder.
John Tunney: He could accept just killed Derrick, only he chose not to simply impale Derrick.
Investigator Charles Woods (at the crime scene in 2004): Directly backside usa is the scene where the homicide occurred.
Charles Wood was lead investigator. The evidence showed that Derrick was lured from the sidewalk and strangled. The killer'south identity was so nevertheless unknown.
Investigator Charles Woods: Well, then he discovered and dug up one very large rock and one smaller stone and he battered Derrick with those rocks. He went into Derrick'southward luncheon bag, and he smashed a banana and took Derrick'southward Kool-Assistance, and he actually poured that Kool-Aid into the wounds that had been fabricated by the large rocks. And he sodomized Derrick with a small stick that he had found.
Lastly, the killer arranged Derrick's body.
Charles Wood: The left sneaker had been removed and was lying nearly Derrick'south right hand. And his right sneaker had been removed and was lying nearly Derrick's left paw.
Charles Wood: It almost looked like the torso had been posed in that position.
John Tunney: Eric continued to deal with Derrick's body because he wanted to, because he chose to and, virtually frighteningly, because he enjoyed it.
The word "bask," so disturbing in this context, would come up up once again and again in the course of the investigation. The very beginning fourth dimension was four days after the murder when Eric Smith walked into the police command center to see if he could be of help in solving the criminal offense.
John Hibsch: Totally enjoyed information technology. Totally enjoyed it. Didn't want information technology to finish.
John Hibsch and other investigators repeatedly talked with Eric Smith and had no idea the killer was sitting right in front of them.
John Hibsch: I mean, he's looking right at me, he'southward — you know, he's kind of hunched over a little chip and he's very, very upbeat, very happy. He likes the fact that he'southward being talked to.
At first, Eric denied seeing Derrick Robie, but then he abruptly changed his story.
John Hibsch: He says, "Right beyond the street from the open field. And that's where I saw Derrick." And when he said that, he most knocked me off the chair.
John Hibsch: He'southward putting him right on peak of the crime scene. Yous merely got to walk across on open field and — and you're at the scene of where the murder was. So, we asked him then what was he wearing, and he went on. He said he had a white T-shirt on, and he had this lunch bag in his mitt. "OK, tell me about the lunch bag." And he said, "Information technology was kind of absurd, really."
The investigators pushed Eric to pinpoint where he concluding saw Derrick.
John Hibsch: And — and that'south when he got — he started to get emotional. His — his vocalization started cracking. His put his head downwards, and he brings his fists up. And his fists were vibrating a picayune bit. And he goes, "You lot think I killed him, don't you?" I saw from the other 2 investigators they were but like, "Wow."
Eric asked to have a pause, and his father brought him a drinking glass of Kool-Help.
John Hibsch: Just as we got back into it again about where he'd seen Derrick once again, he — he grabs the red Kool-Aid and just throws it on the ground.
John Hibsch: Now we all knew that Derrick, the boy that was killed, had ruddy Kool-Aid spilled all over him. You know, I'm thinking that, you know, this kid'southward seen something that's very, very traumatic and he —- and at that place's a block in there, and — and I tin can't become around it.
The next day, investigators enquire Eric to go on his bicycle and show them where he was when he saw Derrick Robie. Investigator Wood was there. In the police videotape, Eric looks calm as tin can be.
Investigator Charles Wood: During the re-enactment, I would have to say he enjoyed it. He was having a good time.
But it quickly became obvious that Eric could not have seen all that he described from the altitude he claimed to exist.
Red Wilson: There was a discrepancy in Eric's story.
Blood-red Wilson, Eric's grandfather, says the family knew Eric was hiding something.
Red Wilson: In — in no mode did we feel that he had done it.
Red Wilson: Nosotros felt that he knew something. Perchance somebody had threatened him, that's why he wouldn't tell.
Five days later he was killed, Derrick Robie was buried in his baseball uniform. Only two days later, his killer confessed.
Red Wilson: I was there. I was in that location when my grandson confessed. It was — information technology was terrible.
Family members sat Eric down and begged him to tell what he knew. The truth was more terrible than they ever imagined.
Dan Rather: And he just said what?
Crimson Wilson: "I'thousand sorry, Mom. I'thou sorry. I killed that little boy." It'southward still hard to believe.
Cherry-red Wilson: The question is, you know, to me, why? How? How could he take the life of a niggling boy?
A twelvemonth later Eric's confession, the question remains. What could possibly hogtie this child to kill another?
John Tunney: Does he know what he's done? Does he know it's incorrect?
A stricken customs is looking to a courtroom for an reply.
KEVIN BRADLEY | Defense attorney: The evidence you're gonna hear in this case is going to be horrible.
Volition the trial of Eric Smith put an finish to the mystery that began on August ii, 1993, the final twenty-four hours of Derrick Robie'southward short life?
WHY DID ERIC Kill?
Steuben Canton Courthouse | August 1994
The trial of the people vs. Eric Smith is finally under way.
Prosecuting attorney John Tunney:
JOHN TUNNEY: (in court) He was well-nigh that alpine [motioning to bear witness Derrick Robie'southward height]. He weighed 40 pounds.
JOHN TUNNEY: He lived 4 years and 10 months. And that person killed him. Eric Smith choked and battered the immature life out of Derrick Robie.
In New York State, murder is the i offense for which a 13-year-old can be tried in adult court.
Dan Rather: You're a male parent of five.
John Tunney: That's correct.
Dan Rather: You lot must have idea about that — must think virtually it in the context of trying a 13-twelvemonth-old son of some other family.
John Tunney: Yeah. Only y'all know where I get-go thought of information technology is when I looked at 4-yr-old Derrick Robie, the face up of every one of my 5 children was superimposed on that child'southward body.
At the heart of this trial, the haunting question: Why did Eric kill?
JOHN TUNNEY: (In courtroom) The fact is that Eric chose to exercise something horrible.
Defense Attorney Kevin Bradley says in that location was no choice.
KEVIN BRADLEY: (in court) Eric Smith suffers from a very serious mental illness. To choice this up, throw this downwards on a trivial boy'south head, does that propose calm, deliberate activeness? A programme?
KEVIN BRADLEY: You're going to hear testimony by people that say Eric but seemed like a normal child and then the rage explodes.
John Tunney: It does not diminish the fact that he understood what he was doing.
Tunney says information technology'south murder, plain and elementary.
John Tunney: Eric analyzed the situation and chose to do it.
To assistance him with the example, Tunney will be calling on Derrick'south parents, Dale and Doreen Robie.
John Tunney: She has to personalize the tragedy, the loss, the terror, to bring Derrick Robie the person into that courtroom.
JOHN TUNNEY: Describe Derrick.
DOREEN ROBIE: He was my beautiful little firecracker.
But bringing Derrick Robie into the courtroom is not going to be easy.
DOREEN ROBIE: He was my little T-brawl player. He wa — very practiced athlete.
JOHN TUNNEY: How did he go forth and collaborate with people?
KEVIN BRADLEY: Objection, Your Honor.
JOHN TUNNEY: Derrick participated in the — in the recreation program.
KEVIN BRADLEY: Objection to the form.
JOHN TUNNEY: What was he participating in?
KEVIN BRADLEY: I'g going to object once more at this point.
The judge agrees and Doreen is not permitted to say much at all about Derrick.
Doreen Robie (1994): I wish I would have gotten a chance to talk about Derrick a picayune more… And it really wasn't off-white that I didn't get to tell them what kind of kid he was.
Information technology'due south time for the defence force to present its case. Bradley begins by calling on two people who know more than almost Eric than anyone else: his mother, Tammy Smith, and his stepfather, Ted Smith.
The jury heard that as a toddler Eric threw temper tantrums and banged his head on the floor. He had speech issues, was held dorsum in schoolhouse and relentlessly bullied.
TAMMY SMITH: He would say things like, "I'k stupid. I'm nobody. I'm," you lot know, "I'm never going to be anybody," that kind of stuff.
TED SMITH: I recollect him coming up to me in the kitchen. He was actually upset, and he was crunching his fist and shaking and told me that — he said, "Dad, I demand help." … "I experience like I want to hurt somebody." And he said, "Yeah, I do. I want to hurt something."
TAMMY SMITH: At one bespeak, he turned and told me that he — he did information technology… I asked him why … he just kept saying, "I don't know. I don't know." And he cried.
Defense psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Herman diagnosed Eric with intermittent explosive disorder, uncontrollable rage.
DR. STEPHEN HERMAN: People who have this disorder draw feeling as if they're about to explode. … Afterwards the episodic rage, the child may appear to be quote "normal."
An good for the prosecution disagreed with Dr. Herman'due south diagnosis.
DR. KATHLKEEN QUINN: Information technology's a rare disorder, rarely seen at the age that Eric is.
And specialists from both sides subjected Eric to extensive medical testing. They examined encephalon function, hormone levels, and institute nothing to explain his vehement behavior.
Because of the sexual nature of his crime, the question of whether Eric was driveling was repeatedly raised at trial, but repeatedly denied.
JOHN TUNNEY: Did he indicate to you generally and consistently that he had not been either physically or sexually abused?
Dr. STEPHEN HERMAN: Yep, he has e'er indicated that.
Yet, there was testimony that Eric'southward older sister, Stacy Hevner, was sexually abused by their stepfather.
Stacy Hevner: He molested me … I'd desire to know if he was molested. At that place had to have been something bothering him.
Still, there was admittedly no testify that Ted Smith or anyone else sexually driveling Eric.
John Tunney: Are there issues? Are at that place problems? Sure. But it does not regularly produce killers.
John Tunney: Did he know what he was doing? Did he know when he was strangling Derrick, that he was strangling a child … And if he knew that what he was doing was incorrect, that he shouldn't take been doing it, and then he tin have every psychological, psychiatric problem in the earth and he'south withal responsible for what he did.
Dan Rather: Under the police.
John Tunney: Nether the law.
But what does the jury believe?
JUDGE DONALD Thou. PURPLE: So, you find the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree?
VOICE #four: Yep.
JUDGE DONALD G. Imperial: Is that unanimous?
VOICE #4: Yes.
Eric's parents, Ted and Tammy Smith, were devastated, convinced their child was sick.
Gauge DONALD 1000. PURPLE: Take the young human being in custody.
He would be sentenced to the maximum: nine years to life in prison. The murdered boy's parents, Dale and Doreen Robie, cried with relief non knowing that they were being sentenced, besides.
EVERY TWO YEARS …
Jim Axelrod: The Robies, they're serving a life sentence.
Joni Johnston: Uh-huh (affirms). … every time that inmate is upward for parole … They relive it. And so, it'south but a nightmare for them.
Dale Robie: information technology really felt like it, yous know, at a sure betoken, why do nosotros accept to? Wasn't the law-breaking enough?
Jim Axelrod: When Eric Smith was sentenced … was in that location a sense … "Now we tin go on with our lives?"
Dale Robie: You hear the "nine years to life." And I think back then everybody was focusing on the life side of it.
Dale and and Doreen Robie were relieved that the boy who murdered their love son was locked away.
Dale Robie: We were even so trying to get over our loss … Then I think we nearly got settled in … for a yr or two, then it hitting u.s..
What hit them was the harsh reality that Derrick'due south killer would one day exist eligible for release. Eric Smith's first parole hearing was in 2002.
Doreen Robie: They could decide that well, now he's done his time and we're going to let him go. … It scares the hell out of me.
The Robies weren't immune inside the airtight-door hearings, and so they wrote messages and made home videos to remind the board about their devastating loss.
Doreen Robie: It upsets me, the fact that we have to beg to go along this killer behind bars.
Smith'south parole was denied. But two years later, he was back before the lath.
In 2004, Smith was 24 years old. This is a statement he read for our "48 Hours" cameras:
ERIC SMITH (reading): "Hello, my name is Eric Smith. You starting time met me xi years ago. … I know my deportment have caused a terrible loss in the Robie family unit, and for that I am truly pitiful."
Joni Johnston: I think that Eric Smith was incredibly troubled, and I think he was a dangerous young man.
Joni Johnston is a clinical forensic psychologist. For more 20 years, she's been evaluating inmates who are up for parole.
Joni Johnston: When we're looking at a very inexact science, if you volition, trying to predict whether somebody is — is dangerous … it's similar balancing a scale. … are we willing to take a gamble?
Johnston has never met Eric Smith, just "48 Hours" asked her to wait at his case.
Joni Johnston: I don't come across Eric Smith at all every bit a kid who snapped. I see him equally a kid who escalated. … from pain animals starting at around age eleven and who somewhen progressed to hurting a child.
She also read transcripts of his parole hearings.
Joni Johnston: 2004 was really the nigh frightening … this is somebody who goes into a tremendous amount of detail in terms of what he did.
Back then, John Tunney shared some of what Smith told the parole board.
John Tunney(2004, reading parole hearing transcript): Question: "You lot convinced him to get to this field. What did you lot do adjacent?" … Respond: "Put my hands around him and strangled him."
All these years later on, Eric Smith's words are still chilling.
John Tunney (reading): "When you were doing that, was that something that gave you a good feeling? "Respond: "At the moment, it did, yes."
Joni Johnston: Probably the nearly pregnant and frightening thing is this is a kid where the narrative seems to accept been this kind of rage, or this person'due south inability to command his acrimony. … And yet … the emotion he expresses is pleasure or enjoyment.
John Tunney [reading]: Question: "Why do you think that was?" Answer: "Because — instead of me being hurt, I was hurting somebody else. Growing upwards, I was always picked on, disrespected, made fun of."
John Tunney: Eric was tired of beingness the victim in his heed … And he wanted to run into what it felt similar to be the victimizer.
Jim Axelrod [reading]: There'south a question. "Mr. Smith … If you had not admitted to someone that you had done this, do you call back it would've been a fair statement to say that you probably would take done it once more?" Respond: "Yep."
That confirmed Tunney's conventionalities that Smith at 13 was a budding series killer
John Tunney: I was agape then, and frankly, (sigh) every bit I sit down hither now, I recollect that Eric Smith may very well accept done it again — 'crusade information technology was such a positive experience for him.
Jim Axelrod: It made him feel practiced.
John Tunney: He got a lot out of information technology. And — had he not been identified … he wouldn't have paid a cost.
The parole board'southward decision in 2004 was no surprise. Merely, for the Robies, at that place was always some other hearing looming.
Jim Axelrod: Information technology must accept felt like a weight hanging right over your caput.
Doreen Robie: Aye. … there's all these … really happy times that are supposed to happen throughout your life. … but in that location's always that.
Dale Robie: We always got a letter of the alphabet most 3 or 4 months prior to that … Ours ever fell around Christmas.
Doreen Robie: You know, here putting the Christmas tree up, and we're reading this alphabetic character that, hither nosotros go over again. … it just made me angry.
This is Eric Smith in 2009, only months before his fifth parole hearing:
ERIC SMITH: It'due south understandable that they would never want me to be out in gild.
ERIC SMITH: My anger wasn't directed at Derrick at all. Information technology was directed at all the other guys who used to option on me. And when I was torturing and killing Derrick … That was what I saw in my head.
Smith, near 30, was interviewed past WENY-TV as he prepared to confront the board.
ERIC SMITH: The but thing that I can say to 'em is I'm not the same person. … there's non a day that goes by in some way, shape, or form that I'm, similar, forced to remember what I did … I'm automatically thinking I killed Derrick and the hurting that I acquired Dale and Doreen Robie.
John Tunney [watching interview with Axelrod]: The problem is … how sincere is it? … versus how contrived or calculated it is? … I certainly can't tell as I sit down here.
Jim Axelrod: Yous can't?
John Tunney: No. … for us to have any real promise, he has to be accurate when he says, you know, "I'thou different," you know, "I'm cocky-aware and I accept every reason in the world to comport."
Jim Axelrod: It's non a question does he believe information technology. Is it true?
John Tunney: Is it accurate. Exactly.
ERIC SMITH: I did impale Derrick. And for that, y'all know, I am sad. … And at that place'southward zero I tin exercise to bring him back. I mean, if I could switch places with him and take the grave for him to live, I'd do it in a second.
Joni Johnston: Remorse is of import for sure.
Joni Johnston as well wants to know if it'south the truth merely cautions that expressions of remorse at a parole hearing tin can be hard to judge.
Joni Johnston: is it 18-carat remorse? Lemme tell ya. There is no psychological test. (laughs) There is no confront. There is no behavioral indicator of remorse. … We don't really know if this remorse is real.
The parole board in 2010 turned him down again, but equally the years passed, Johnston says Smith seemed to be changing.
Joni Johnston: Y'all're starting to run across some compassion — from him for other people. So, I'm seeing a lilliputian bit of hope for him now.
Jim Axelrod: Is Eric Smith growing or is he simply refining his message?
Joni Johnston: I think both. … certainly parole boards have to always separate that out, which is why they're non just relying on what this inmate is maxim in the parole hearing. Y'all know, thank the lord … They're gonna be … looking at all this person's history. What has this person done or — or not done in the two years since he's been here? … they're looking at the parole interview as one piece of that puzzle.
But for the Robies, decades of endless parole hearings accept taken a toll.
Doreen Robie: It's not fair that we have to keep doing this.
Jim Axelrod: Did you ever lose the energy to keep going with this? … I — I tin't anymore?
Doreen Robie: Yeah, that, I mean … he would say, "Just we're doin' information technology for him in his memory." And I'g, like, "Y'all're right" … And I know that some people probably call up, "Geez, you should just become over this and — and motility on." But any parent that has ever lost a child knows that you don't always become over it.
On October 5, 2021, 41-twelvemonth-quondam Eric Smith, went before the parole board for the 11th time.
Joni Johnston: Y'all accept somebody … who's completed a ton of programs … He's got some more educational goals. … His risk is low, according to … run a risk cess that are being done.
Smith even told them that he was engaged. He says his fiancée was studying to be a lawyer and wrote him asking about the juvenile justice system. Over fourth dimension, he says, they ended up falling in love.
Joni Johnston: Eric Smith at 13 is non the same person that he is — that he is at 31 … Or at 41. He has inverse. We all change. … And you lot kinda go, "What else tin can he do? … to prove that he is no longer a danger to society. … now we're at the indicate where information technology becomes, is this about punishment or about rehabilitation?
LOCAL NEWS Report: Breaking news. The Savona man who killed a 4-year-old boy in 1993, has been granted parole.
Dale Robie was at work when he heard the news he'd been dreading for so many years and chosen Doreen.
Dale Robie: We institute each other on the porch and gave each other a hug.
John Tunney: I have some sympathy for the people who are called upon to make that decision. … And that'south why I … have such hope — that they're right.
Jim Axelrod: At the end of the day, it's still a piffling fleck of a gamble.
John Tunney: Oh, no, no. Information technology's a huge adventure. … This parole decision is a loftier-take a chance enterprise, to exist sure.
A NEW CHAPTER BEGINS
Weeks later on Eric Smith was granted parole, dozens gathered in Savona to peacefully protest his release.
PROTESTER: "Nosotros are here equally a community to stand together for justice for Derrick Robie … and for Dale and Doreen Robie …"
Dale Robie: They wanted to call up Derrick because all the attention was at present on Eric existence released. And then, they didn't want people to forget, y'all know.
Doreen Robie: It was very touching.
Many in Savona feared Smith wanted to movement dorsum to alive with his mother.
Doreen Robie: I wasn't so much worried about us as I was everybody else.
Dale Robie: I just knew where a lot of people in town in the hamlet stood.
Doreen Robie: You know, we don't desire him here. Better not transport him here.
And the parole lath agreed. Smith's release was delayed for months until approved housing was found for him in Queens, New York, over 200 miles away from Savona.
WROC NEWS Written report: "This is breaking news from News viii … Eric Smith, who has been backside bars for nearly iii decades … is no longer in prison."
And then on Feb i, 2022, after existence locked upwardly for 28 years, Eric Smith quietly slipped out of Woodbourne Correctional Facility — out of view of cameras — a gratuitous man.
Doreen Robie: I understand why after so many years they decided to give him a take chances. And that'southward fine, you know for him and his family.
Information technology would brainstorm a new chapter for the Robies who had fought for so long to proceed Smith in prison house.
Doreen Robie: You know he's been released. Merely in a way then take we. … No more parole. … I can get on with our lives. … Now the true healing can begin.
Doreen says function of the healing procedure has been letting go of her anger.
Doreen Robie: I would rather laugh than cry any day of the week … If you allow it, it's going to eat you alive.
Jim Axelrod: The anger.
Doreen Robie: Yep.
The Robies say they choose not to recollect most Eric Smith, only instead focus on friends and family — peculiarly their son Dalton, at present 30.
Doreen Robie: Y'all have to discover joy in life. You have to enjoy each other, because life is too brusk and just live.
Dale Robie: August 2nd, the day nosotros lost him, we always try and become to do something fun. White water ice foam with sprinkles. That's what Derrick called vanilla, and then we try to —
Doreen Robie: Wherever we are, we take to go observe water ice foam.
Dale Robie: (cries) Even though it's sad. It'south happy.
As for Eric Smith, since his release, "48 Hours" has been unable to contact him. Just in 2009 he told WENY-Television receiver, he had big plans for his future.
ERIC SMITH [2009]: I want to get married and raise a family. You know concord downwardly a job. Pursue the American dream.
He too said he wanted to counsel kids who take been bullied — simply similar he had been.
Jim Axelrod: The question is will Eric Smith be a success story or somebody were pointing to and saying, "the system blew information technology with that one"?
John Tunney: That's exactly right. … I keep going back to my hope. … Time will tell.
Back in the summer of 1993, to honour Derrick Robie, volunteers – including Eric Smith's great granddaddy — bulldozed the scene of the crime and put in a new ball field in memory of the little T- ball player.
Today, up on the hill watching over the field is a statue of Derrick. It was sculpted by Doreen's uncle and funded by people from all over the country.
Dale Robie [reading plaque on the statue]: "Defended to exist a gentle reminder of what babyhood is meant to be. Derrick J. Robie."
Doreen Robie: I beloved that he's the simply person in town that has a statue. A lot of people called him the "mayor of Savona" because he was pretty well known.
Jim Axelrod: At four years and ten months old?
Doreen Robie: Yes. … He just, he was so much fun. He was simply a keen kid.
Eric Smith will remain on parole for the rest of his life.
Produced by Judy Tygard, Lisa Freed and Chris Young Ritzen. Mead Stone is the producer-editor. Tamara Weitzman is the development producer. Kat Teurfs and Michael Loftus are the acquaintance producers. Mike Baluzy, Greg Kaplan, Doreen Schechter and Gregory F. McLaughlin are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eric-smith-released-derrick-robie-killer-gamble-48-hours/
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