Eric Smith Wiki – Eric Smith Biography
Eric M. Smith, who was 13 years old when he killed a 4-year-old boy with a stone in western New York, was paroled, prison officials said Saturday. Smith, now 41, appeared before the Board of Parole for the 11th time on October 5 and was released on November 17, the Department of Corrections and Community Oversight said in an emailed statement.
Transcripts of the hearing were not immediately released. Smith was convicted of second-degree murder in 1994 for luring Derrick Robie into the woods near the youngest boy’s home and hitting him on the head with a rock. Derrick was walking alone to summer camp in a park in the Steuben County town of Savona in August 1993.
Eric Smith Charges – Criminal History
Eric M. Smith was 13 when he killed four-year-old Derrick Robie with a rock in the Steuben County town of Savona in 1993. Smith was tried as an adult and convicted of second degree murder after a trial in the Steuben County Courthouse. Now, 27 years later, he has been granted parole.
In 1993, Smith reportedly lured Robie to a wooded area near the boy’s home in Savona. Smith strangled Robie, smashed his head with a rock, and sexually abused him. Smith was reportedly taken into custody about a week later, and the case received national attention due to the nature of the crime and the ages of Smith and Robie. A photo of a Smith, then a teenager, was widely circulated in court, wearing a Bugs Bunny sweatshirt and a mop of red hair. Reportedly, at his trial, Smith’s attorney tried to persuade a jury that Smith suffered from a mental disorder.
Smith, now 41, appeared before the Parole Board for the 11th time on October 5 and was released on November 17, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said. Robie’s parents, Dale and Doreen Robie, opposed Smith’s release every time. According to the Associated Press, they were previously deemed to have lobbied for parole reforms that include extending the time between hearings for violent offenders from the current two years to five. Smith is at the Woodbourne Medium Security Correctional Facility in the Catskills.
Smith reportedly admitted at his 2014 parole hearing that he killed Robie because he thought the boy would get up and report what happened. According to the Daily Mail, in 2014, Smith said, “He didn’t deserve anything I did to him; no one deserved that kind of violence. What I did to him was brutal. “He further said that his anger was not directed at Derrick, but at his own family and the students at the school who harassed him and called his act” horrendous “and” violent “. He said:” I took my anger and my frustration and my rage towards him. ”
Dale Robie told local media that the family did not want to comment on the latest decision. In April 2015, Smith was denied parole for the seventh time, and the parole board called the crime “serious and brutal.” The same year, Dale Robie said that while the denial of parole provided temporary relief, in another two years they would have to relive the tragedy. Usually, around Christmas time, he said, the couple would receive a letter from the parole board saying that Smith would be eligible for parole, usually around May or June.
“And we started to revive,” Dale Robie said at the time. “What can we say? What can we do? Why do we have to? Every two years we are reliving what happened to Derrick and what he did to Derrick. And the community relives it too. It wears you out after a while … I feel like I shouldn’t have to be here talking for Derrick. I feel like (Smith’s) actions alone should keep him behind bars. But that’s the law. ”
Dorie Robie said in 2015 that she was simply looking for some peace for her family. “Everything that I have crushed and healed for a year and a half is gone,” she said. “So this really isn’t fair to these families.”
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