Geralyn Graham was sentenced to 55 years in prison Tuesday in the Rilya Wilson kidnapping ad abuse case.
The Kendall woman, 67, was convicted by jury last month in a case that roiled Florida’s child welfare agency, which was supposed to monitor the child. The body of Rilya, who was 4 years old when she vanished, has never been found.
Graham got 30 years for kidnapping and 25 years for aggravated child abuse.
"One can only be inherently evil to inflict that type of pain and torment on an innocent child,” Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez said. “Rilya Wilson deserved nothing less than a loving, caring, nurturing environment. Instead she lived in fear and suffered in a house of torture, torment and abuse."
Tinkler Mendez could have sentenced Graham to as much as life in prison.
Prosecutors believe Graham smothered Rilya, a foster child, with a pillow, disposed of her body near water in South Miami-Dade, then spent years telling conflicting versions of what happened to the child. Jurors, by an 11-1 vote, deadlocked on a count of first-degree murder.
The jury convicted her of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated child abuse and one of child abuse.
The case was significant for the Florida Department of Children & Families, which did not notice the girl was missing for 15 months. Graham told investigators that a mystery DCF worker whisked the child away for mental health treatment.
Graham was later arrested for and convicted of fraud. Based on incriminating statements from her domestic partner, Graham was then charged with aggravated child abuse of Rilya.
Her partner, Pamela Graham, no relation, agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of child neglect.
Pamela Graham, a meek shell of a woman, testified at trial that Geralyn Graham would bind the child’s hands to the bed railing with plastic “flex cuffs” and confine Rilya in a laundry room for hours.
A friend of the pair told police that Graham borrowed a dog cage to put Rilya in when she misbehaved, although no could say they saw the child in there as punishment.
Acquaintances also testified that Graham gave conflicting stories about what happened to the girl — to some, she claimed the girl was on a road trip with a “Spanish lady” friend.
A grand jury indicted Geralyn Graham in 2005 after she allegedly confessed in detail to inmate Robin Lunceford, who testified at trial over four days. Two other inmates also testified that Graham, while behind bars, suggested she killed the child.
Woman gets 55 years in Rilya Wilson foster-child abuse case
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Woman gets 55 years in Rilya Wilson foster-child abuse case
