- Geralyn Graham on trial for murder 12 years after Rilta disappeared in her care
- Case rests on a confession she made to another inmate while she was in jail on an unrelated fraud charge
- Rilya's disappearance went undetected for two years leading to a massive shakeup in Florida Department of Children and Families
- Graham told friends a social worker took her and never brought her back
- Her body has never been found
PUBLISHED: 11:03 EST, 30 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:19 EST, 30 November 2012
The tiny dog cage a foster mother kept the four-year-old child she is accused of murdering trapped in was wheeled out in court yesterday for jurors to see during the trial for first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse.
Rilya Wilson vanished in 2000 under the nose of Florida's child welfare agency while she was under the care of Geralyn Graham, 66. Her body has never been found.
Authorities long suspected Graham in Rilya's disappearance, but didn't charge her until 2005 when prosecutors said she confessed to an inmate while serving time on an unrelated fraud charge.
Prosecutors brought the wire dog cage into the court room yesterday and placed it in front of the jurors as Graham's friend Detra Coakley Winfield testified she loaned it to her specifically to keep the child in.
Vanished: Rilya Wilson, 4, was missing for two years before the state of Florida realized and began to search for her
Yesterday: Detra Coakley Winfield testifies in a Miami-Dade Criminal Court about the steel dog cage, left, she loaned Geralyn Graham to put Rilya Wilson in before the four-year-old child disappeared
She said Graham asked to borrow it and told her it was so she could keep the four-year-old in it at night 'to stop her from doing harm to herself'.
However she did admit she had never seen her inside the cage.
Graham has always maintained that a child welfare worker took Rilya from her home in January 2001 and never returned her. Her disappearance was not discovered until April 2002, leading to major reforms at the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Winfield was also asked earlier in the week about how Rilya was cared for and admitted she once saw her confined to a laundry room as punishment for bad behavior, according to The Miami Herald.
'I saw her in timeout but I never saw her in the dog cage,' she said, adding that she had never saw Graham strike the child once.
She also said she often seemed 'sad' during her eight-month stay at the Graham home and once saw her play with feces.
'To me, she had some issues, some mental issues,' Winfield told jurors yesterday.
Trial: Rilya (right) disappeared in 2000 aged four. Her foster mother, Geralyn Graham, now 66, is on trial more than a dozen years later
Graham told her Rilya, who was taken into care after being born to a crack-addicted mom, was taken to New York by a Spanish lady who had befriended her before being taken away by DCF.
On Wednesday, another family friend, Laquica Tuff, told jurors that she saw Rilya with scratches and a gash on her forehead about two months before the girl’s disappearance.
Lost: Rilya's body has never been found
She also said Graham told her the same story about her being taken to New York by a friend.
In the afternoon, a crime scene detective dispatched to Graham's home in Kendall in 2004, more than three years after Rilya disappeared and after the family had already moved, testified that little forensic evidence was found at the home except for latent evidence of human bodily fluid or blood in the garage, according to Local10.com.
Graham's attorney raised the possibility that Rilya could still be alive because her body has not been found.
Attorney Scott Sakin suggested Rilya could've been relocated to a new home and lost in a system that has a history of caseworker incompetence.
Sakin also reminded jurors that jailhouse snitches have much to gain for helping out prosecutors.
'Is there any evidence at all that this child is dead?' Sakin said. 'Where is the body? We don't have to prove that she's alive. They have to prove that this child is dead.'
Prosecutors said Graham confessed to killing Rilya, who would be 16 now, because she believed the girl was evil and possessed by demons.
Rilya and a younger sister were both given over to state care because their drug-addicted, frequently homeless mother could not care for them.
More...
- Boy, 12, found beaten, malnourished and without shoes after escaping parents 'who locked him away for three months'
- Grandmother 'beat, burned and bit her two young grandchildren and made them eat CAT FOOD’...after they'd been removed from their mother over abuse
Rilya's name is an acronym for 'remember I love you always' given by her birth mother.
One now-retired DCF supervisor, Willie Harris, testified that in April 2000 he received a call from Graham claiming Rilya's first foster home was 'deplorable' and might be unsafe.
Accused: Geralyn Graham is sworn in at Miami-Dade Criminal Court where she is charged with the murder of Rilya Wilson, who was in her care when she vanished in 2000
'I saw her in timeout but I never saw her in the dog cage,' Mrs Winfield said, adding that she had never saw Graham strike the child once
Rilya's younger sister was living with Graham and her unrelated companion, Pamela Graham, and Rilya had recently visited their house.
Harris said he decided to remove Rilya from the first foster home when he was denied access to investigate its condition. He took the girl to the Grahams' home.
'I thought it would be necessary to remove the child because I couldn't prove whether she was at risk or not at risk,' Harris testified.
The key to the case, both sides agree, is the testimony of career criminal Robin Lunceford, who befriended Graham in jail.
Lunceford claims that Graham, referring to Rilya as 'it,' told her she smothered the girl with a pillow and buried the remains near water 'because water represented peace,' Weintraub told jurors. Another inmate also claims that Graham confessed at a different time.
Weintraub said Lunceford was reluctant to snitch but 'couldn't stomach' knowing about the death of a child.
'If you tell me you killed an innocent child, I'm going to snitch, and I'm going to snitch proud. Because it's different,' Weintraub quoted Lunceford as telling detectives.
Lunceford had been facing a life sentence as a repeat offender but has had her sentence reduced to 10 years because of her cooperation, court records show. With time off for good behavior, she could be released by the end of December, Sakin pointed out.
'She's a rat,' Sakin said. 'Robin Lunceford would do anything, anything, to get out of prison.'
Graham also has a checkered past, including a history of convictions for fraud. Authorities said she has used 47 different aliases and had 10 different driver's licenses when she was arrested.
Weintraub said Graham forged documents falsely claiming she was Rilya's grandmother in order to collect state benefits — even after police believed the girl was dead.
The trial resumes on Tuesday.
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