Lionel Tate - The Murder and Conviction

The Murder and Conviction

Tate was left alone with Eunick, who was being babysat by Tate's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. While the children were downstairs playing, Tate's mother called up to them to be quiet. Tate came up 45 minutes later to say that Eunick was not breathing. He stated that they were wrestling, he had her in a head lock and slammed the child's head into the table.

Tate was convicted of killing Eunick by stomping on her so forcefully that her liver was lacerated. Her other injuries included a fractured skull, fractured rib and swollen brain. These injuries were characterized by the prosecution as "similar to those she would have sustained by falling from a three-story building." In sentencing Tate to life imprisonment, Judge Joel T. Lazarus of Broward County Circuit Court said that "The acts of Lionel Tate were not the playful acts of a child The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous and indescribably cruel."