TEXARKANA, Texas–Prosecutors want to know if a man accused of capital murder in the death of his 5-year-old stepson last year intends to claim he isn’t fit to stand trial ahead of jury selection scheduled in the case for October.
Motions filed recently by First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Katie Carter request that the state be put on notice if the defense plans to call expert witnesses to testify about the mental state or intellectual capacity of Terry Don Robinson Jr., 36.
Robinson is accused of capital murder in the Sept. 27 death of Zaydon Robinson and faces charges of injury to a child and child endangerment involving three girls who were approximately 2, 3 and 4 years old when 5-year-old Zaydon’s life ended.
Crisp and Carter asked that the state be notified if Robinson plans to call expert witnesses and that it be allowed to have him evaluated by its own expert if he does. The motion notes that “the state anticipates that defense may raise the defenses of incompetency and/or insanity along with possible claims of mental disease/deficiency and/or other brain injury or low intelligence and/or psychological issues.”
The state has also asked that Robinson be tried on all the charges pending against him at once. The motion to consolidate notes that Robinson is facing a capital murder charge and a charge of injury to a child in Zaydon’s death and three counts of injury to a child and three counts of child endangerment in connection with the alleged physical abuse of the other three children.
The state announced earlier this year that it will not seek the death penalty for Robinson. If convicted of capital murder in Zaydon’s death, he will face an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
All of the children had allegedly been beaten repeatedly by Robinson with a black rubber hose, according to a probable cause affidavit. Significant bruising was noted on the bodies of the living children and scarring on the buttocks of the children was allegedly the result of diaper rash that was so severe it had caused skin abscesses. One of the children allegedly engaged in behavior that led medical experts to conclude she did not have regular access to food, the affidavit said.
The girls were examined after Zaydon’s death Sept. 27. Police and emergency personnel were called to an apartment on Nichols Drive in Texarkana, Texas, that day in regard to an unresponsive child. Zaydon was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later.
Medical staff alerted law enforcement to the presence of extensive bruising to Zaydon’s abdomen, arms, legs and buttocks, according to the affidavit.
Terry Robinson is currently set for jury selection Oct. 14 before 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison.
The children’s mother, Destiny Lynn Culvahouse, 25, who also goes by Destiny Robinson, has also been charged in connection with the alleged abuse of her four children. She faces a count of injury to a child by omission for allegedly failing to protect Zaydon as well as charges of injury to a child and child endangerment related to the three girls.
Culvahouse is scheduled for trial before Judge Addison in mid-November.
Terry Robinson is represented by Jeff Harrelson and Culvahouse is represented by Butch Dunbar. Crisp and Carter are representing the state.