The lover of the woman charged in the murder of foster child Rilya Wilson is on the stand Monday morning.
Pamela Graham, who was also the child’s legal guardian, is so far the most high-profile witness to appear in the 4-week-old murder trial of Geralyn Graham. The two are not related.
Geralyn Graham, 66, is on trial for the death of the 5-year-old foster child whose disappearance a decade ago roiled the state’s child welfare agency and led to a series of reforms. Rilya’s body has never been found.
Charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, Geralyn Graham faces life in prison if convicted.
Born to a drug-addicted woman, Rilya was under the supervision of the Florida Department of Children and Families nearly her entire life. In 2000, the agency placed her in the home of Pamela and Geralyn Graham, who were already caring for Rilya’s little sister.
Because a case worker failed to properly supervise the child for more than a year, DCF did not realize Rilya was missing until April 2002. Geralyn Graham has long insisted that a DCF employee, in January 2001, whisked Rilya away for mental health treatment, never to return.
Graham was not indicted for murder until 2005 after she allegedly confessed to a cellmate that she smothered the girl and dumped her body in a South Miami-Dade waterway. The cellmate, Robin Lunceford, may testify this week.
With no body, eyewitnesses to the slaying or confession, Miami-Dade prosecutors have spent weeks weaving a circumstantial case portraying Geralyn Graham as a lying, manipulative caregiver who gave multiple stories of how Rilya disappeared and appeared unconcerned that DCF supposedly took the child and never returned her.
Defense lawyers have laid blame on the DCF case worker who failed to properly supervise the child, and pointed to a lack of forensic evidence and questioned whether the child is even dead.
Pamela Graham, 48, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, pleading guilty to child neglect and child abuse with no harm.
Prosecutors say that Pamela Graham, who was the legal custodian of the child, was cowered into lying by her dominating lover.
In her sworn statement, Pamela Graham told police that Geralyn never revealed to her what happened to the child, but forced her to lie to authorities.
“We were up like all night and I just kept asking her, and I was crying because I didn’t know what to do,” she said in a statement, adding: “I kept telling her that I was responsible for this child, and, you know . . . that eventually someone was probably going to come out [to check on Rilya], and then what? That’s when she told me, you know, just tell them someone from DCF came.”
