DETROIT – Robert Byrd was 4 years old when he died. The Highland Park boy was rushed to the hospital on May 8, 2011, but he was already dead.
An autopsy revealed he'd been bound at the wrists, beaten over a long period of time and systematically starved. When he died, he only weighed 22 pounds and his body was covered in blistering wounds.
Byrd's uncle, Randy Gardner and his wife, Matilda, had been responsible for the boy's care. And Gardner was convicted of murder and child abuse.
He was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison. Matilda will being the judicial process in May. She is the sister to Byrd's mother.
At his sentencing, Gardner said he hadn't laid a hand on the boy and took care of him better than his own children.
"I knew he was underweighted but I thought maybe that was how he was born," Gardner said. "I took care of them kids way before I even had my own. I love them all from the bottom of my heart," Gardner said.
Anthony Byrd, the boy's father, said he entrusted his son's care to his in laws after their mother died.
"All I want to now is, why. Why did my son have to go out like that? I don't think he deserved to go out like that. He was just a little boy," the father said.