Crystal Keith

UPDATE, July 7, 2009: Woman sentenced to 50 years for death of Christopher Thomas
______________

UPDATE, May 7, 2009: Aunt convicted in death of Christopher Thomas

Crystal Keith was convicted Thursday of beating 13-month-old Christopher Thomas to death and with torturing his 2-year-old sister.

The jury began deliberations at 10:37 a.m. and returned announced it had reached a verdict at 11:23 a.m.

...Keith, 25, the children's aunt and kinship foster mother, was found guilty of one count of first-degree reckless homicide and one count of physical abuse of a child (intentionally causing great bodily harm.)

_______________

UPDATE, May 6, 2009: On tape, aunt recounts abuse
_______________

How could anyone torture an innocent little child to death?

A report on Crystal Keith, the aunt and murderer of her foster child, 13-month-old Christopher Thomas Jr., sheds some light on the reasons she committed her crimes.

The report by forensic psychologist Kenneth Smail describes Keith as a victim in this tragic saga, too.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Days after state child welfare workers placed the infant Christopher Thomas and his 2-year-old sister in the care of their aunt, the 24-year-old woman miscarried, an event she blamed on the children. Within weeks, she was abusing them, believing Christopher wanted her sexually and that his sister was "sneaky," according to a court document filed Monday.

Crystal Keith is charged with beating Christopher to death and with torturing his older sister for months. She has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. A report filed by forensic psychologist Kenneth Smail paints a portrait of a deeply troubled woman, but concludes Keith knew the difference between right and wrong.

"Her conduct occurred as an expression of her depression and stress," Smail writes. "It was not something that was out of her control."

According to the report, Keith grew up in large family where, she told Smail, she was sexually abused, depressed and at times suicidal. She moved in with Reginald Keith when she was 16. They had a child, then married four years later.

Question: Where is that child?

Last November, when Christopher was murdered, I don't recall hearing that Keith and her husband had a child of their own. Where was that child at the time of the murder and where is that child now?

Did Keith care for her baby properly?

If she did, I don't know why her depression and stress were expressed by torturing her foster children but not her own child.

And if she didn't care for her own baby properly, why would foster children be placed in the care of an unfit mother?

Crocker Stephenson provides some disturbing details of what Keith did to her foster daughter, like hitting her with the back of a hairbrush and putting her feet under hot water until her skin bubbled.

...According to the report, "one of her thought distortions that seemed particular to Christopher was that she perceived him to 'want me in a sexual way,' " based on how he looked at her when she changed his diaper.

"She said such observations on her part resulted in her hitting him in the leg and in other parts of the body. . . . She would keep hitting him until he stopped crying."

The report quotes Keith talking about the beating she gave Christopher on Nov. 10, which resulted in his death the next day.

"I had in my mind that I need to hit him. He was trying to control me, and I punched him in the leg. He was still crying. I hit him some more so I hoped that he would stop crying."

According to the report, she said she slapped him, choked him and shoved the handle of a hairbrush down his throat.

"All my life I wanted to die, but instead he died," she is quoted as saying in the report.

"That isn't fair. There was incest in my family. I was so sad. I've always been sad and alone."

The torture is horrible! How could she do that to a helpless 13-month-old?

I don't understand how someone as troubled as Keith could hide that from the case worker.

Didn't the case worker know anything of Keith's personal history -- her deep depression, suicidal thoughts, the abuse she endured?

As for Christopher's sister, the report noted that by the time she was hospitalized, her weight had fallen below the first percentile, she had four fractures, could not use her left arm, and had burns "from head to her foot, some of which were consistent with flowing water burns with blistering and oozing observed on those wounds."

Keith attempted to hide the children's injuries from her family, the report says.

"I believe the record is replete with indications that she appreciated that what she was doing was wrongful," Smail wrote.

Obviously, Keith's awareness that what she did to the children was wrong should be critical to the way her trial plays out.

But will a jury sympathize with Keith's personal trauma and consider her behavior to be an outgrowth of that, making her actions understandable and somewhat expected?

In the end, the most important factor to consider is whether Keith knew that what she was doing was wrong. Smail concludes that she most certainly did.

Of course, her own tortured past impacted the person she became. I'm not dismissing that. It's part of her. Dysfunction begets dysfunction.

Still, I don't see how such a troubled individual could present herself to a case worker as a fit foster mother.

Her husband, Reginald Keith, had to know that Crystal was deeply troubled and taking in two children wouldn't be wise.

Again, where is their biological child in all of this?

Such serious depression should have been noticed by the case worker.

Christopher Thomas and his sister should never have been taken away from other loving foster parents and placed with Crystal Keith. Never.

Responsibilities come with having children, to provide for their physical and emotional needs.

So many people in this terribly sad story behaved irresponsibly.