Eric_Smith

According to court documents, Smith was often tormented by bullies for his protruding low-set ears, thick glasses, red hair and freckles.
The murder case made national headlines, largely due to the young ages of the killer (13 years) and of the victim (4 years).

Smith attracted Robie to a remote location in a park. There Smith strangled Robie, dropped a pair of large rocks on the boy’s head, undressed his body, and sodomized him with a tree limb.

The cause of death was determined to be blunt trauma to the head with contributing asphyxia.

Two days after Robie's funeral, Smith admitted to Robie's killing. In 1994 Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to the maximum term then available for juvenile murderers — a minimum of nine years to life in prison.