"What they give you is nothing but the truth." – D.C. Detective George Taylor

By Nancy Lewis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 20, 1998; Page A23

"I wish you could have met my brother," the little girl wrote to the judge. "You would have liked him."

They may have been there to watch or listen as their sibling was killed. They may have been called to testify against a parent. They always are left knowing that a brother or sister is gone forever.

Their pain and anger flash in the clinical statements they make to police and in the anguished sessions with counselors.

These are the children left behind.

And while most adults may wish to spare them from talking about death, children are eager to discuss it, said Kim Poyer, a child interview specialist working for the U.S. attorney's office in the District.

"Usually the first thing children ask is whether their brother or sister is dead, if they are in heaven," Poyer said.

Sometimes they blame themselves for not doing more to help. Sometimes they cry, but just as frequently, they show their emotions in other ways: a boy pounding Play Doh against the interview room table as he tells about the blood, or a little girl twisting her long hair around her index finger as she recounts brutal details.

If the children haven't been coached, "they don't lie," said D.C. homicide detective George Taylor. "What they give you is nothing but the truth."

They bluntly give very specific details about what they saw and heard as their brother or sister died.

Robert C. Williams Jr. was killed last year when his father, Robert C. Gordon, punched the 11-year-old boy in the chest because he couldn't learn to tell time.

"When the ambulance came and they asked Robert Gordon what happened and he said that Robert [Williams] died in his sleep. Robert did not die in his sleep. Robert Gordon punched my brother in the chest. I saw him do this," Robert Williams's 9-year-old sister, Robin, wrote in a statement to the court.

When Judge Harold L. Cushenberry sentenced the father to six to 18 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter, the judge said that he didn't think Gordon meant to kill his son but that he had hit his other children, too.

In that same courtroom, those children left behind told the judge they wanted Gordon to go to jail.

"Robert Gordon was very mean to my brother because my brother was in Special Ed school," Robin wrote to the judge. "He would tell Robert he was going to whoop him because he wasn't going to let his child grow up stupid. ... I think Robert Gordon should stay in jail for the rest of his life."

In goodbye notes they left in their brother's casket, his siblings said how much his death had hurt them.

From his brother Sean: "Robert, I am very sorry that you died. But I don't have to worry any more. Because your safe in heven."

And from Robin: "Dear Robert. I miss you. Have a good time in heve [heaven]. ... Have sweet dreams with Jesus. I love you very much."

At the bottom, she drew a picture of Robert, with angel wings.