***Explicit Content and KCE is using Zha’riyah’s name with permission from  and at the request of her mother***

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What happened to baby Zha’riyah Robinson? We know she was a cute, spunky, sweet and beloved little five-year-old little girl.We know she was brutally sexually assaulted on August 22, 2023, and unfortunately, passed away less than three months later on November 16, 2023 in Surprise, Arizona. What we don’t know is how she died. In court today, Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Smathers called Zha’riyah’s death “suspicious.”

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A highly skilled sexual assault nurse who spoke with KCE said that the death could be linked to her rape, which was oral, vaginal, and rectal. A rectal tear could cause a slow and terrible death under certain circumstances.

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According to the criminal complaint, 15-year-old Dakari S.D. Childfress was briefly watching Zha’riyah at a home in Kenosha. He was then alleged to have brutally raped her in every possible way. Zha’riyah was able to depict to Kenosha Police exactly what happened.

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Childress was charged as a juvenile at first, but Judge Meier sent him to be tried as an adult. He made his initial appearance as an adult on February 7, 2024. The Kenosha DA’s office asked for a $25,000 cash bail. Commissioner Michel ordered a no-cash bail, meaning that Childress was released into the public without having to pay any money. This angered Zha’riyah’s family.

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“[No cash bail] is never fair in this world,” said Timothy Stark, Zha’riyah’s grandfather. “I’m demanding the Kenosha DA’s office ask for a million dollars cash bail.”

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“We handled a sexual assault case with Childress as a suspect []. After our conversation, I spoke with a couple [of] detectives and found that Surprise PD in Arizona is investigating the child’s death,” said KPD Spokesman Lt. Josh Hecker.

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KCE reached out to the Surprise, AZ police department. Sgt. Rick Hernandez released the following statement:

“This investigation is still open and is pending the full medical examiner’s report.  Here is a summary of the SPD investigation to date.

On 11/16/2023, Officers responded to a local urgent care after Zha’riyah became unresponsive.  Upon arrival, Officers observed medical staff attempting life-saving measures.  Zha’riyah was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, where she later passed away.  Detectives from the Surprise Police Department responded, interviewed her guardian, medical staff, and executed a search warrant of Zha’riyah‘s residence.  On 11/18/2023 an autopsy was conducted.  While the full medical examiner’s report is not complete, the medical examiner did not find any obvious signs of new trauma.

Throughout this investigation, Surprise PD investigators have been in contact with Kenosha PD regarding Zha’riyah’s past family history.”

Timothy Stark, Zha’riyah’s Grandfather was able to speak in court today due to Marsy’s law:

“My statement today is to deny for them to get this motion to go through. Because there’s other kids that’s in communities, and if you close that off, then that means other families wouldn’t know what is going on.
 
It’s sad enough today, Judge, that I’m here, and we just finding out this. And this happened August 22nd of last year. And my question is to get his bond revoked, because there ain’t no reason how he sturdy keep catching cases.
 
He done caught two, three cases in Kenosha, let them out a rape of a five-year-old child. He charged for a five-year-old child rape. He’s destroying her, and she’s no longer here no more.
 
That’s all I got to say.”

Indeed, Childress was arrested in Winnebago County for stealing a firearm. Oshkosh Police arrested him and he was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor on February 26, 2024.

In court today, Defense Attorney Alyssah Foster asked the court to seal the court records that depict the chilling details of what her client, Childress was alleged to have done to Zha’riyah. She said the following

“Unfortunately, I’m not able to provide any proof of the threats and the actions against his family that have occurred, as they did occur in Winnebago County. And Winnebago County was reluctant and did not take police reports from the incidents that his mother had attempted to report to them regarding the situation.

My main focus is mostly having his address sealed specifically because of the fact that people are arriving at his mother’s house. That is not where he is residing. And in fact, they have had incidents where they’ve had altercations with people at their residence because of the situation.

The social media presence is, although it is not directly tied to this case, it is causing people to come up with conclusions relating to this case that I do believe are highly inflammatory and could potentially affect a jury pool in this case, which is why I’m asking for the case to be sealed. I understand that public policy allows for cases of this nature to be open to the public, especially because Mr. Childress had been waived. But I do believe that because of the fact that it is not just his personal privacy, but also the privacy of his family that is being affected in this case, I think it is important for at least his address to be sealed.”

Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Smathers, who is the offices’ sex crime specialist opposed the measure saying:

“Well, Your Honor, I oppose the defense motion. I will note first that when looking at sealing court documents and court information, the party seeking the order bears the burden of proof to show an overriding public interest in such closure of information. And the party must not rely on his individual privacy right, but rather the public interest in protecting his privacy.

I could not agree with Mr. Stark more. I think that there is an increasing, large overriding public interest in not protecting this information from the public. The defendant is charged as an adult.

He’s facing a very serious felony that involves sexual assault of a very young child. I think there is a huge public interest right for the public to know that he’s facing these charges, particularly because they do relate to a child. There is a strong mandate by Wisconsin statutes and case law for open records.

The public has a right to know about the operations of government and to have access to those documents, including the criminal complaint. There are exceptions, but as I indicated, the party seeking those exceptions bears the burden. I do not believe that the defendant, through his attorney, has shown an overriding public interest in this closure.

I understand that there was some social media explosion about this case, but really it wasn’t about this case. Unfortunately, the victim in this case has passed away. A lot of the social media posts were about her passing.

She died under what I would describe as suspicious circumstances in Arizona. So a lot of the information on the internet was related to her passing and how she passed. It had very little to do with Mr. Childress and his case. But even if it did, people have a right to speak their opinion, to go online, to post about cases. Just because there was some social media presence regarding tangentially Mr. Childress, I don’t think that’s enough to close this case. Additionally, Ms. Foster has not provided, there’s like general statements about threats, but has not provided any proof or any specifics. She also indicated that as of March 28th, there’s no information that those threats or anything had continued up until today. Because back in March, that was close in time to when all of this blew up online. But since that time, there’s been no allegations that that has continued.

So when the court has to balance the public interest information and the defendant’s privacy rights, the public interest clearly outweighs the defendant’s individual privacy rights. He has to be denied the defendant’s privacy.”

Judge Milisauskas didn’t buy the defense’s argument, saying:

“All right. We’re just here on a limited issue today, and that’s the vulture against the Children’s Defense. I’m requesting that I seal the file, the address, and I’ve heard the comments of the victim’s family, I’ve heard the comments of the state.

I’m going to start out by saying that the First Amendment is pretty important. The public has a right to know when somebody is charged with a crime in the criminal justice system. We have an open court. That door has to be open. Anytime I hold court. And sometimes people come in here and say stuff that is not correct or is inflammatory, but that’s what I have to deal with. I can’t change that. So there is a tremendous right of the public to know about when somebody is charged with a crime. As to publicity, I’ve had some pretty high-profile cases. A lot more than this one, where there were national news people, and we got to pick a jury. We got through that. And it’s amazing.

A lot of people, even though they’ve read about a case, they tell me it doesn’t matter, Judge. I can sit on the jury. So there’s other ways to deal with that. As to the threats, I think I get threatened more than anybody. And I have my public information out. Every day somebody threatens to kill me because they’re not happy with the case. But you know what? I come to work, and the public knows where I live. If you have a problem with that, I file a police report.

Plus, the defendant doesn’t even live in Kenosha County. So I don’t see anything that you’ve met your burden of proof as to your motion. It’s denied.”

Stark said the following after the meeting:

“I love the judge. I thank Anthony Milisauskas, and he hold up to his word. Like he say, if the public know where he live at, everybody should know where everybody’s at.”