Amber Peterson was 12 years outdated when her mom instructed her in regards to the half-brother she by no means knew.
It was via a newspaper article her mom shared that Peterson realized about Andrew Setzer’s horrific beating dying in August 1999, at age 4, by the hands of his foster mom, Theresa Barroso.
Peterson was solely 18 months outdated when her mom left her father, Thomas “Cowboy” Setzer, and moved to Hawaii. Setzer later fathered Andrew with one other lady and the boy was faraway from their custody and, in the end, positioned within the care of Barroso and her husband, Alvin Lee Robinson, on June 2, 1999.
The Perris couple had custody of Andrew for less than 60 days, however in that point Barroso subjected the boy to torture and beatings, together with repeated kicks to his genitals and even making him eat his personal feces after defecating in his pants. Robinson did not do something in regards to the abuse and by no means reported Barroso to social companies or police.
Andrew suffered a deadly harm after Barroso struck him within the face, knocking him off a toddler’s chair he was standing on as punishment, and he hit his head on a nightstand.
Barroso and Robinson, who have been 24 and 28 years outdated, respectively, on the time of their arrests, have been tried and convicted of Andrew’s homicide. Each have been sentenced in 2001 to 25 years to life in jail.
On Sept. 1, Robinson was launched from a substance abuse remedy facility at Corcoran State Jail after serving greater than 20 years behind bars, stated Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Barroso, in the meantime, is eligible for her first parole listening to in February 2023.
Sister appalled
Peterson not solely feels cheated that she by no means obtained to know her half-brother, however she’s horrified that youngster killers could be launched from jail. And he or she’s annoyed that widespread abuses within the foster care system have been recognized for many years, and but nonetheless exist in the present day.
“I believe it shouldn't even be a query that Andy’s murderers get out, ever,” Peterson, 35, stated throughout a current interview at her Riverside condominium. “They have been licensed by the state, they usually manipulated the system for cash, after which they do 20 years and they get to go dwelling they usually get to be round different kids?”
Previous to Robinson’s launch, Peterson stated she flooded the Governor’s Workplace with letters she and her buddies wrote urging stronger penalties in opposition to youngster abusers and that Robinson stay incarcerated. “Twenty-two years isn’t sufficient,” Peterson stated.
But it surely was to no avail. In keeping with the carceral system, Robinson had served his time and certified for parole.
Parole granted
At a parole board listening to in February, listening to officers decided Robinson certified for parole after he admitted what he did was mistaken and had proven progress throughout his time in custody.
Regardless of having solely a first-grade schooling, Robinson stated he had discovered God, listened to his audio Bible every day, and used respiration strategies to manage his anger, saying he “prays his means” out of poisonous feelings.
“This crime ought to have by no means occurred, it shouldn’t have by no means occurred,” Robinson stated throughout his parole listening to, based on the listening to transcript. “I take a look at it as I used to be egocentric. I take a look at it that I didn’t care about no one however me. , I needed to make Theresa completely satisfied in any respect prices. I believed I used to be in love with this lady.”
Parole board Commissioner Neil Schneider questioned how Robinson and Barroso even certified to be foster dad and mom, given Robinson’s historical past of home violence and a vandalism conviction after he trashed his and Barroso’s dwelling throughout a quarrel.
Schneider stated there have been “many suspects on this crime,” and that Robinson was merely one in all them.
“In my thoughts, you and Ms. Barroso had no enterprise being foster dad and mom, zero. The system failed. Riverside County, I do not know what I consider them. I hope folks misplaced their job,” Schneider stated. “I can’t even consider what occurred in the entire foster system there, however I can’t, I can’t concern myself with that.”
The board additionally took into consideration that when Robinson was pressured by different inmates in 2011 to assault one other inmate, he refrained, and a 12 months previous to that reported one other inmate who was attempting to pollute the jail’s consuming water, based on the listening to transcript.
Moreover, Robinson served as a prepare dinner whereas in jail and stated that, regardless of struggling a stroke whereas in custody and having restricted mobility on his left facet, together with knee and wrist issues, he nonetheless needed to be a prepare dinner in civilian life.
“We discover that you don't pose an unreasonable danger to public security and are due to this fact appropriate for parole,” Schneider instructed Robinson throughout the listening to.
Six months later, Robinson was launched from custody.
Failed reform efforts
Efforts to reform the foster care system and safeguard kids from abusive foster dad and mom have been pushed for many years in California, however little progress has been made.
Way back to 1992, the Little Hoover Fee famous in a report that regardless of spending $1.4 billion on welfare companies for abused and uncared for kids, the state “has failed miserably to make sure that these kids, ripped from their troubled houses, are given the required nurturing for them to change into well-rounded adults and productive residents.”
And in a 2003 report by the identical state oversight panel, Chairman Michael A. Alpert stated the best impediment to significant reform within the foster care system is an “unwillingness on the a part of each state and native leaders to take duty for reforming the foster care system.”
“With nobody in cost, the foster care system fumbles ahead, and sometimes backward, and prices kids and households their happiness, their prosperity and even their lives,” Alpert stated within the report.
“The issue is that nobody will say they're liable for any sort of change,” Peterson stated. “As a result of in the event that they did that, then that individual could be accountable when this continues to occur.”
Gene Kennedy, a spokesman for the Riverside County Division of Public Social Providers, didn't reply to questions on what reforms the county has applied in its foster care and youngster protecting companies system since Andrew’s dying.
Organic mom speaks out
Additionally essential of the foster care system is Andrew’s organic mom, Laura Utley.
In a phone interview, Utley stated she was serving time on the California Establishment for Girls in Corona when, 11 days shy of her launch, she was knowledgeable by a jail chaplain of her son’s dying.
Now married with a 20-year-old son of her personal and dealing as a caretaker, Utley stated she has paid an awesome worth for the errors of her previous. Andrew’s dying, she stated, devastated her.
“It ruined my life. I’ve performed the most effective I can to drag myself collectively, however it should by no means go away,” Utley stated. “I really feel numerous guilt, numerous disgrace. The system is meant to be there for individuals who have addictions and assist reunite them with their households, they’re not supposed to place them in conditions, or go away them in conditions, the place they’re going to be harmed or killed.
“I beloved my son and he was my life. I simply made some dangerous selections once I was rising up, and my son paid the value.”
Lifelong impression
As for Peterson, she stated she has carried Andrew along with her in her coronary heart since studying about him as a preteen. She attended his funeral and, since then, has thought of him nearly every day. Now married with a 5-year-old son, she usually appears at him and sees Andrew, or “Andy” as she calls him.
She stated she usually desires about her brother and the folks liable for his dying, and laments having by no means gotten the possibility to know him. She does her finest to manage, however can’t assist getting indignant at instances, understanding that Robinson has been giving a second probability at life, and Barroso probably will get that probability as properly, whereas Andrew by no means even made it to kindergarten.
“It simply enrages me,” Peterson stated. “It breaks my coronary heart that different kids need to undergo this. One youngster must be sufficient.”