Cynthia Robinson blamed her 2-year-old son’s November death on the boy’s 3-year-old brother, saying the toddler pushed him down the stairs inside their Chester home, police said Friday.
But prosecutors said that was a lie.
Frank Walton Jr.’s injuries were severe, including lacerations to his face and liver, and bruises throughout his body. Only an adult, they said, could have inflicted such grievous wounds.
Robinson has been charged with murder and related crimes in the boy’s death. Her husband, Frank Walton Sr., faces similar charges for withholding lifesaving care for his 2-year-old son in an attempt to hide his wife’s abuse, authorities said.
Both remained in custody Friday, denied bail. There was no indication that either had hired attorneys.
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse, in announcing the charges Friday, said he was “heartbroken” by the facts of the case.
“A child lost their life at the hands of those who had a fundamental responsibility to love, protect, and care for them,” Rouse said. “We will move forward with a thorough and deliberate prosecution, guided by the evidence and driven by our duty to seek justice for this child.”
Investigators, in court filings, detailed years of abuse they said all of the couple’s children endured, including black eyes and other beatings disguised as discipline.
Frank was born prematurely, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest, and tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl. He was placed in foster care as a result, but was returned to his parents in May 2025.
The abuse, prosecutors said, began not long after.
One of Robinson’s friends, who had seen her beat the toddler and drag him down the stairs “like a pillow,” said Robinson cursed the boy the day before his death.
“[Expletive] this little [expletive]. I’m going to hit him now,” Robinson said, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. “I’m tired of this little [expletive] kid.”
At the time, the boy had blood coming out of his nose, the affidavit said.
The next day, Robinson called 911 to say the child had stopped breathing. Medics found him on the couch of the family’s home on Butler Street, unresponsive and cold to the touch. He was pronounced dead not long after at Nemours Children’s Hospital.
Police later found cocaine, as well as a crack pipe, inside the family’s home during a search following the boy’s death.
The couple’s three other children were examined at Nemours. All were unkempt and in soiled clothing. Two of them, an 11-month-old and a 6-year-old, had bruises on their bodies.
While investigating the boy’s death, authorities said, police learned that Walton knew the child had been seriously injured at least seven hours before his wife called 911, but made no attempt to get him help until he stopped breathing.
Instead, prosecutors said, Walton continued to work, dropping a trailer off at one of his construction job sites.
In the years before the boy’s death, officials from Delaware County Children and Youth Services visited the family’s home multiple times, the affidavit said.
Robinson overdosed on narcotics in the family’s home in February 2023, leading to her arrest on charges of endangering the welfare of a child for smoking crack as her two children slept near, the affidavit said. The two children were placed in the care of their paternal aunt, and Robinson later pleaded no contest to the charges.
Child welfare authorities learned during a home visit in February 2025 that the children had returned to Robinson’s care in violation of the court order, but they left the children in her care, the affidavit said.
It was not clear why child welfare officials made that decision. County spokesperson George Basile said that officials could not comment on the case because it is under investigation, but that CYS is “committed to fully cooperating with the district attorney’s investigation into the matter.”
By that time, Robinson had already given birth to Frank and was pregnant with her fourth child.