LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The father of a Las Vegas toddler is facing charges after his two-year-old son was found dead in a dumpster.
Jacoby Robinson Jr. was reported missing on the night of June 7 and police found his dead body a few hours later. The victim’s mother, Diaja Smith, was arrested on charges of open murder and child abuse or neglect.
The victim’s parents provided conflicting stories to Las Vegas police. Smith told investigators that her son went missing from a local park, but no video footage could be found showing her taking the route she said she took to get there. When asked if anyone could confirm seeing her there with the victim, she said that a store clerk could confirm seeing them five days earlier.
She also said that she had not spoken to Jacoby Robinson Sr. “in years.” Police obtained a search warrant for an address Smith provided and while they were executing that warrant, Robinson attempted to enter the building through a rear window.
A records check revealed that Robinson had an active, no-bail warrant for Battery/Domestic Violence and he was arrested and taken to police headquarters for an interview. Robinson told police that he had been in an “on again, off again” relationship with Smith for approximately six and a half years.
He added that they have five children together and that she lets him stay at her apartment about four days a week. Robinson told police that Smith had abused their son in the past, using a belt or a charging cord to hit him.
He continued by noting that on the morning of June 6, he awoke to “high pitch” screaming and saw Smith beating the victim. He said that the boy fell back asleep and “appeared to be fine.” Robinson said he left the apartment and when he returned after midnight, nobody was home.
He said he had no knowledge of his son being reported missing. When police told the suspect that his son had suffered a brain bleed, Robinson admitted that he had seen Smith “go overboard disciplining him in the past.”
When they told Robinson that his son was dead, he admitted having performed CPR on the boy, but “he’d forgotten to tell detectives about it.”
Video surveillance footage showed the two suspects leaving the residence together at approximately 7:41 p.m. on the night the boy was reported missing. Robinson said that they just went on a walk “to talk.”
The suspect denied any knowledge that his son was dead or of the location of his body. Robinson has a preliminary hearing in Clark County Justice Court scheduled for July 25.
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