Crystal Keith Sentenced

Finally some closure, though I do find closure to be overrated.

Crystal Keith was sentenced yesterday for the beating death of her nephew, 13-month-old Christopher Thomas Jr., and for torturing his 2-year-old sister.

She was the foster parent of the children. At the time she murdered and tortured them, she was acting as their mother.

It's hard to believe that any "mother" could do what she did to those little ones.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

[Crystal] Keith, 25, betrayed little emotion throughout most of the sentencing hearing, in which Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Patricia McMahon ordered her to serve the maximum penalty: 50 years in prison and 25 years of extended supervision.

"If this case doesn't deserve the maximum penalty, then I don't ever want to see the one that does," McMahon said before announcing the verdict.

...Keith's stoicism broke as she spoke to McMahon.

"I apologize for my wrongdoing," she said, her voice muffled by tears.

"I take responsibility."

Keith also said, "I was just trying to help."

What?

Help?

[Keith] said she choked him, hung him upside down and pressed his head on the floor. At some point, the infant's eyes rolled back into his head and he began to vomit. He stopped breathing. She then stuck the handle of a hairbrush down Christopher's throat, she said, in order to revive him.

The boy died the next day at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. He had suffered blunt-force trauma to his head, had a broken right arm, bruises on his thighs, throat and neck, multiple scalp injuries and a lacerated tongue. Keith described to police a number of beatings she had given the child since he began crawling.

Keith also told police she began abusing the boy's 2-year-old sister in June, the complaint states.

That's not "helping."

Video shows Keith reading her remarks, expressing her remorse. I'm not convinced that her words are heartfelt or even her own.

Christopher died Nov. 11, one day after being viciously beaten by Keith. His sister survived months of torture, even as Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare caseworkers repeatedly visited Keith's home.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams said the suffering endured by Christopher and his sister defies description.

He said, however, that he hoped the case would accomplish several things.

"I hope it will bring reform to the foster care system," he said.

"I hope and I pray that the system can be overhauled so that this case will never happen again."

And, Williams said, he hoped Keith's punishment would deter child abuse.

"If someone thinks of killing or abusing a child in the future, they will realize they are going to prison for a long time."

I doubt that Keith's sentence will deter others from committing such abuse.

Anyone capable of doing what she did is probably not paying attention to the news or aware of this case.

However, hopefully Christopher's death will prompt decent people to realize that the system is in serious need of dramatic overhaul.

Keith killed him, but many in the system are responsible for failing to protect Christopher.


Christopher L. Thomas Jr., 1, plays at his West Allis foster home in 2008. (Photo courtesy of Robert J. and Darlene M. Logan)