Stepfather fatally beat 5-year-old boy for ‘stealing,’ then went to apply for a job: Cops

A mother and stepfather are behind bars in Texas in connection with the death of their 5-year-old, who allegedly suffered “massive bruises” to his abdomen, buttocks and extremities.

Terry Robinson Jr., 35, is facing a capital murder charge while Destiny Culvahouse, 24, faces a charge of injury to a child causing death by omission, Texarkana police say. Cops responded shortly after 2 p.m. on Sept. 27 for a call of a child not breathing at an apartment in the 3300 block of Nichols Drive.

Paramedics arrived and started doing CPR on the unresponsive boy later identified as Zaydon Robinson. They rushed him to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. Officers found “extensive injuries on the child victim indicating foul play,” according to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.

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Detectives took Robinson and Culvahouse to the police station for interviews. Post-Miranda, Culvahouse told police that she woke up around 9 a.m. and Robinson had “disciplined” Zaydon for “stealing” prior to her getting out of bed, according to the affidavit. She said Robinson left the apartment to go grocery shopping and make a car payment. She said Zaydon was “acting normal” and seemed fine that morning, Culvahouse reportedly told cops. The boy and the other children in the home took a nap around 11 a.m.

When she went to Zaydon’s room around 12:30 a.m. to wake him, she noticed the boy wasn’t breathing, per the affidavit. She ran outside to alert Robinson, who was outside in his car. Robinson went inside and tried unsuccessfully to wake Zaydon up. He then tried to put the boy in a bathtub to “try and warm him up,” the affidavit said.