Crystal Keith Sentenced to 50 Years for Beating Death of Christopher Thomas

July 08, 2009

Okay, first off I just want to say that this is one of those stories that will first make you angry, and by the time you have finished reading it you will be disgusted to no end.  It might even make you cry.

Christopher Thomas was 13-months-old when he died at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin on November 11, 2008, only a day after sustaining yet another beating from his aunt and foster caregiver, Crystal Keith, now 25.  But the issues that led to the infant's untimely and violent death began months earlier and ultimately involved the torture of his 2-year-old baby sister.  Both children, it turned out, were taken from their biological mother's home in March 2008 by caseworkers from the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare and placed in Keith's home. 

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner, Christopher Happy, would later report that Christopher had sustained more than 47 injuries including a broken arm.  Other injuries included the other arm having been torn out of its shoulder socket, and the baby had been punched in the face with such severity that his teeth bruised his lips on the inside of his mouth.  His eyes had also bled, and he had suffered a brain hemorrhage.  Christopher testified at Keith's trial that the only times he had seen such injuries were in car accident victims, falls from high places, and child abuse cases.

Perhaps this article should have been titled, The Monster of Milwaukee.

Welfare caseworkers were sent to Keith's home once a month to check on the children, and amazingly had not seen any signs of physical abuse in the home even though, by Keith's own admission later, the abuse had begun within weeks of the children's arrival at the house of horrors.  The Keiths also brought the children into a welfare agency office once a week so that their mother could visit with her kids, but for reasons that were not made entirely clear Keith stopped the visits without notice in October 2008.  On the night of the fatal beating, November 10, 2008, Keith, apparently realizing that she had finally gone too far, sent her husband and Christopher's sister to a relative's house before calling the police to report what she had done.  Police detectives interviewed Keith that same night after Christopher had been rushed off to the hospital, and the reason for the abusive beatings apparently was to stop the child from crying.

"…I couldn't feed him and he wouldn't shut up….It made me madder," she said in her statement to police, "so I started punching him in the legs.  And he got louder and then I start slapping him in the face.  And I, um…grabbed him by the legs and I put him down on his, you know, how you put a body weight on his head?  I did that.  And then he was still going and then I slapped him again and that's when I saw his eyes turn over."

"Would it cause him to cry when you hit him?"  Detective Jeremiah Jacks asked.

"Yeah," Keith responded.

"How did you feel?"

"Relieved."

"You felt relieved?" Jacks asked.

"Like he wouldn't cry so much and I would pop him and stuff and when I knew he would shut up 'cause of the poppin' I felt like I could go on with my day.  He shutted up."

Keith admitted that she began hitting Christopher's sister for much the same reason--anger and frustration with the child.  She said she began the abuse by slapping the girl's hands, but by July the abuse had escalated to include slapping, pinching, and eventually punching the child.

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"What about August?" Jacks asked.

"That's when the hairbrush came," Keith responded.

Keith told the detective that she began hitting the girl with a hairbrush on her hands, knuckles, and feet if she moved after being told "to sit down."  She explained that the skin on the girl's hands and feet eventually began to peel off from the beatings, and her toenails would break off.

"It got so bad with the feet that I wouldn't let my husband or anybody see her feet," Keith told the detective.  "So I left socks on her all the time.  One morning…I had her in the kitchen on the pot (potty chair) and she was turned wrong so it made me mad so I smacked her in the face so bad that her eyes were closed."

She explained that afterward she placed a scarf around the girl's head, positioned her facing backward on the potty chair and forced her to sit in that position with her head in her lap for the remainder of the day.

"How long was it that she stayed like that?" asked a second detective, James Hutchinson.

"Till the nighttime," Keith said.  "Till I was ready to put her to bed.  And I would go in there and feed her and everything."

She said that she stopped beating the child with the brush when it seemed like it no longer caused her any pain.  In an apparent attempt to elicit pain from the child, Keith admitted that she began twisting her limbs, and folded them against her joints.  It was not long before the child could no longer raise her left arm—and Keith then broke her leg.  In one incident, apparently angry over the manner in which the girl had used the potty chair, Keith sat her in the bathtub, on the toilet set, and ran hot, scalding water over her feet as punishment.

"How hot did you think the water was?"  Jacks asked.

"I saw smoke," Keith replied.

Read longer excerpts of Keith's statement to police by clicking on the PDF documents below:

PDF Document 1
PDF Document 2

A tearful jury convicted Keith in May 2009 on charges of child abuse, for beating baby Christopher to death, and for torturing his 2-year-old sister.  On Tuesday, July 7, 2009, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Patricia McMahon sentenced Crystal Keith to 50 years in prison, and ordered that she also serve 25 years of extended supervision after her release.  It was the maximum sentence allowed by state law.

"If this case doesn't deserve the maximum penalty, then I don't ever want to see the one that does," McMahon said.

Keith, crying, told the judge:  "I apologize for my wrongdoing.  I take responsibility….I was just trying to help."

Prosecutors said that they hoped the case would "bring reform to the foster care system" in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

"I hope and I pray that the system can be overhauled so that this case will never happen again," said Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams.  "If someone thinks of killing or abusing a child in the future, they will realize they are going to prison for a long time."

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Photo Credits: Police file photo

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Comments

[Pam]

I dont think there is a sentence enough for this crime. This person does need to be removed from society forever - nothing can punish someone who has no feeling

[Stacia]

Oh MY GOD !!! Who is this monster. She should get the same treatment Christopher and his sister got! What a pig. She actually deserves the death penalty! "I was just trying to help." What? Huh? By beating the girl with a hair brush and twisting her limbs. WHO raised this woman? That person should be blamed and held accountable as well!

[SD Mittelsteadt]

It seems like I say this after reading nearly everyone one of your posts.....but stories like this really push my anti-capital punishment sentiments to their limits. I will say, however, that a life of misery and extreme pain is an option. Even if she lived 100 years of that kind of punishment, it would still not satisfy the requirements for justice.

[Mary]

First of all I would like to say it was very difficult for me to even finish the article. I think Crystal Keith was very fortunate to receive just a 50 yr. sentence for the atrocities she perpetrated on not only Christopher but also his 2 yr. old sister. There are many crimes much less horrific that command a mandatory life sentence.
Where was the rest of the family? Someone had to know; someone had to see these children during the period of time they were being abused.DCF is not without blame. Why wasn't their much closer supervision due to the situation? The numbers are mounting of people who also have Christopher's blood on their hands.

[Joy]

This story made me heart sick. This vile woman deserves so much more than 50 years in jail! It is my hope that sometime during that 50 year sentance she will become someone's punching bag!

[Kim]

This story is horrible. How can a child sustain so much pain, how can anyone do this to a little baby. This woman deserves much mor ethan 50 years. I don't understand how a human being can do this.

[YvonneB]

I think she should have been sentenced to death!! She deprived that poor baby of his life and she should get the same.

[Lori in NJ]

Reading this article had me in tears for those poor children...I am sick to my stomach. Very sad that nobody cared at all...family...DCF, etc. This kind of stuff has gone on for years...and every time...there is an outrage and newspapers indicate that there will be changes in DCF so this does not happen again....but over and over and over again...it does happen!!!!!!! When will all of us as a society say ENOUGH!!!! We are all to blame as a society...and until we all band together to be more vigilant and protective all ALL CHILDREN....this will continue to go on. MAY CHRISTOPHER REST IN PEACE FINALLY...AND PRAY FOR HIS SISTER TO HEAL AND HAVE LOVING INDIVIDUALS WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF HER AND PROTECT HER.

[Holly]

There isn't a punishment suitable for this crime. I hope she rots in prison. I hope it's a living Hell for her because her 2 year old neice will spend the rest of her life with the trauma she inflicted on her.

[Tammy Wunderlich]

Wait till she stands in front of our maker!!!!!!!!!!!I wouldnt want to have to answer to God...Burn!

[Chrissy]

This is a terrible thing to have happened to those poor children. Unfortunately there is no adequate punishment for someone who treats a child like that, especially a family member. Take the person's life? They aren't going to suffer long. 50 years prison? Still has her life. With a bit of luck, other inmates will know who she is and what she did and mete out some poetic justice. But none of that will remove the suffering of the little girl and the suffering and death of her brother. And Child Welfare has a lot to answer for. With the injuries these children suffered, they MUST have noticed something.

[karen]

I believe that the caseworkers who put children in these homes and also the ones who are checking on them should also be held accountable when these children are abused. I don't mean lose their jobs, they should be put in jail also. I bet they would pay more attention to what is going on with these children. Also, her husband had to know what was going on, he also should be put away!

[jailhouserevenge]

Someone in Wisconsin must network and find an inmate where Crystal Keith is imprisoned to spread the word of what she did. This was how Jeffrey Dahmer got his just desserts.

[helenhudson]

>>and ordered that she also serve 25 years of extended supervision after her release...

Please God, let whoever supervises this sub-human be more caring and on the ball than the caseworkers who signed Christopher's death warrant and sentenced his sister to a life of pain.

[Sheller]

There are no words to describe the disgust toward this woman. Just wipe her off the planet, please. A waste of skin, of oxygen, where do these vile pieces of human flesh come from. Hard to believe humans like this are out there. Do the world a favor and take yourself sideways would ya.

[Angel]

I just can't believe the world today. Everytime I turn on the news, I hear about children being beaten, raped, murdered, etc. And most of the time, it is by a family member or family friend. How is it that noone saw or suspected this was going on?? What about Keith's husband? I find it hard to believe that he knew nothing if he lived in that house. I may be wrong, but I would like to think I would know if this was taking place around me. 50 years is not nearly long enough for this crime, yet the death penalty would let her off far too easily. I think they should throw her in a cage with about 25 mothers using the same weapons she used on those babies: hairbrushes, boiling water, and some brass knuckles for good measure!! Give us immunity and an unlimited amount of time, and let us handle this.

[Dre]

Does the sentence fit the crime?HECK no what a joke...She murdered a 13 month old and tortured a 2 year old. The Death Penalty or even life in prison is letting her off easy, she should have to suffer in the same manner those helpless children did. The Child welfare Office and the (blind) case workers should be held accountable as well...I hope she suffers every day for the next 50 years. What about the husband? he never saw anything? Doubt that.They both deserve to rot.

[julia]

The fact that she called it smoke as opposed to steam shows her true smarts. A woman of this level of knowledge does not matter in our society so why do I(and others) have to pay taxes to feed her, clothe her and let her live rent free for 50 years... kill her it's cheaper! :)Not to mention fair, Chris. didn't do a thing wrong and he died she did and she lives...

[Susan]

She should get the death penalty or at least life in prison. Why ever let this monster out to prey on babies again? Evil, evil, evil woman.

[j.stephen.h]

There should be Mandatory Psychiatric Evaluations, and then secondary ones, for anyone who is a potential foster-parent. (also criminal background checks for abusive history) It's pretty sickening how lazy and unreliable the system is concerning such matters. Half the time so long as the kid is out of DHS's hair they dont really give two craps and thats not overly harsh its reality. I agree that the social workers involved deserve to lose their jobs and possibly even jailtime. The Police unfortunately are a Reactive organization, who react once called...there needs to be more proactive measures taken until the law Changes. The sentence should have been death.Stacia commentor i understand your rage, but not all parents of monsters make them so...sometimes things happen along the way that shape a monstrous mind and this miserable excuse for a Human beings parents may or may not have contributed.

[Evette]

My stomach is still turning. For the life of my I just don't understand this kind of brutality. She had the frame of mind to call the authorities when she realized she had gone too far! What a monster. The social workers are just as bad as this monster. I know that these case workers are not indicative of all case workers however better education and training for people going into the field of social services is more than warranted.

[azzy]

aww god...so horrible...if only i could go vigilante mode...why didn't they just punished her the same way as she tortured the children and see how she likes it...for 50 years everyday...man...just too horrible to describe my gut feelings...