No verdict yet in slaying of Tampa toddler

A Hillsborough County jury Thursday will resume deliberating the fate of a man accused of killing his 22-month-old son.

Chauncey Robinson, 27, is charged with murder and aggravated child abuse in the Feb. 13, 2008, slaying. He faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder.

Jurors deliberated for about two hours today without reaching a verdict. They will resume at 8:30 a.m.

Chavon Robinson died within minutes of suffering brain swelling from repeated heavy blows to his head, a pathologist testified today.

"He has a swollen brain; a severe brain injury," said Leszek Chrostowski, a Hillsborough County associate medical examiner. "His brain injury caused his death."

Chrostowski said he found evidence of blows so severe that there were hemorrhages in both of the toddler's optic nerves.

Assistant State Attorney Kimberly Hindman said only Robinson had the opportunity to inflict all of the injuries.

"This is the day for justice for Chavon Robinson," she said in her closing argument.

Robinson didn't testify and the defense called no witnesses.

Instead, defense attorney Christopher Watson blamed his client's girlfriend, Tina Tillman, for the toddler's death. He said Robinson left the apartment he shared with Tillman to pawn some jewelry so the couple could pay their telephone bills.

"You know she could have," Watson said of Tillman in his closing argument. "She had the time alone with the child."

Tillman testified for the prosecution. Watson said the detective who initially investigated the case ignored Tillman as a potential suspect.

"She looked at two people in the room and said, 'I'm picking that one,'" Watson said.

The couple told police the boy was asleep in the bedroom of their apartment while Tillman paid bills. Tillman told police Robinson was in the hall sweeping; he said he was playing video games.

The couple said they heard Chavon make a loud noise and pulled him off the bed to the floor, but he had stopped breathing.

Robinson and emergency medical technicians tried to resuscitate the boy, but he was pronounced dead in the emergency room of St. Joseph's Hospital.

Chrostowski said an autopsy the next day showed Chavon had a multitude of injuries, including breaks of both clavicles, lacerations of internal organs and internal bruising.

He said those injuries were caused by a massive blow to the child's stomach. Chavon could have died of those injuries if the head blows hadn't occurred, Chrostowski said.

Chavon's mother testified Tuesday that Robinson picked up his son for a usual weekend visit on Feb. 1, 2008, and then asked to keep their son longer.

Shantil Galloway told police that during a phone conversation with Robinson he said she was making their son soft and that he was keeping him to "toughen him up."

Hindman said Chrostowski's testimony showed Chavon suffered from days of abuse, adding that only Robinson was with his son most of that time. She said that's why Robinson didn't want to return Chavon to his mother - he wanted time for his son to heal.

"He knows he has to keep that kid until that kid is a little better," Hindman said.