A Case of Justice

Amani Robinson 13 months Non Survivor

Rockville Babysitter Convicted of Killing Girl

By Katherine Shaver

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, December 16, 2000; Page B02



A Rockville man was convicted last night of strangling a 13-month-old girl while he baby-sat for her in August 1999, but the Montgomery County jury was divided on whether he also sexually assaulted the child.
Timothy Conrad Phillips, 31, showed no emotion as relatives of the toddler, Amani Robinson, broke into tears on hearing the jury forewoman declare "guilty" on charges of second-degree murder and child abuse leading to death. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three sexual assault counts and found Phillips not guilty of three other counts. Phillips faces a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison. Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Paul A. McGuckian said he will set a sentencing date next week. After the seven-day trial and two days of deliberations, several jurors said they rejected Phillips's contention that Amani drowned Aug. 26, 1999, when he stepped away from the bathtub while baby-sitting for her in her Rockville home.
Three jurors said that they believed Phillips sexually assaulted the child but that the Maryland medical examiner's office did not provide enough photographs of her injuries. Better documentation of Amani's injuries, they said, might have caused them to convict him of some of the sex offenses. "We think there was something there, but we didn't see the evidence to say for sure," said one juror, a Kensington woman who spoke on the condition that she not be named. "So many people were frustrated with the medical examiner's office, that they didn't document the injuries near enough," said a juror from Germantown who also spoke on condition of anonymity. While jurors believed the medical examiner's findings that Amani died of strangulation and not drowning, the Germantown juror said, the autopsy "sounded remarkably sloppy overall." Some jurors were escorted to their cars by sheriff's deputies after they walked somberly and silently past Amani's relatives crying and hugging outside the courtroom. Several of Amani's relatives said they were upset that the jury did not find Phillips guilty of first-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. "I'm happy they got him for something," said Amani's mother, Amy Hogan Robinson. "But it's not what we wanted." Jurors were not told until after they reached their verdicts that Montgomery police also have tied Phillips to a 2-year-old Rockville boy who died in 1997. Police have said Phillips cared for the boy before he died of head injuries, but no one has been charged in his slaying because other people were in the home when the boy was found unconscious in his crib. Deputy Montgomery State's Attorney Katherine Winfree said she and Assistant State's Attorney David Boynton haven't decided whether to try Phillips again on the charges for which the jury could not reach a verdict. Phillips's attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders Robert Kaye and Joseph Poux, had argued that Phillips was a victim of an inexperienced Maryland medical examiner who "made some big mistakes" and used "eyes of bias" to confirm early suspicions that Amani had been sexually assaulted and killed. Phillips, who had dated Amani's mother, called 911 50 minutes after she had left for work, saying Amani had drowned in the bathtub. But a police crime scene investigator testified that she didn't find water on the tub or the child safety seat that Phillips said he had used for Amani.