Father beats his daughter to death, gets 10 years for manslaughter

A Rockaway resident who had beaten his seven-year-old daughter on two successive nights in October 2005 and then failed to get her medical attention has been sentenced to 10 years in prison following his plea of guilty to manslaughter. The daughter - Sierra Roberts - was transported by ambulance to a local Queens hospital the day after the beatings as a result of a 911 call and was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
&#8220The defendant - the child's natural father - was awarded custody of the child when she was three years old,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. &#8220She had previously been living with foster parents who had raised her since birth. The defendant's attack on his innocent and vulnerable daughter was both heartless and heartbreaking. He will now spend 10 years in prison for his actions.”
Russell Roberts, 43, of 72-21 Hillmeyer Avenue in Rockaway, who had formerly been employed as a stock person, pleaded guilty on November 27 to first-degree manslaughter before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Hanophy who imposed the determinate sentence of 10 years in prison.
The defendant admitted that, while at home on the evening of October 23, 2005, he repeatedly slammed his knee into his daughter's abdomen, and that, the following evening, he bent his daughter over a bed, placing her abdomen against the edge of the bed, and then repeatedly and forcefully beat her buttocks with a belt.
Roberts acknowledged that even after slamming his knee into the child's abdomen and seeing her visibly in pain he failed to get medical attention for her.
A 9-1-1 call alerted authorities to the situation on October 26, 2005. The child was then taken by ambulance to Peninsula General Hospital where she was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.