A Miami-Dade Police homicide detective testified Wednesday that Geralyn Graham told him the same story she told the Department of Children and Families – that an unnamed woman from the agency took foster child Rilya Wilson away for psychiatric treatment.
Chris Stroze interrogated Graham in 2002 after DCF realized Rilya was missing and police determined the case had moved from a missing person's case to a homicide investigation.
Graham, 66, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted in the murder of 4-year-old Rilya, whose body was never found.
Stroze, like several other witnesses before him, told the jury about Graham's explanations for why the child was missing, with prosecutors using him to make the point, again, that she lied over and over.
Stroze testified that Graham was extremely confident telling her story, and even challenged him to try to find inconsistencies.
"She stated that if I could prove that she was lying about anything, I would see that she was lying about everything,” he said.
Graham has insisted that she did not kill Rilya, who she was taking care of at the time. Graham’s attorneys say that there is no evidence that Rilya is dead, let alone that Graham killed her.
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Most of the trial Wednesday was devoted to Stroze’s testimony.
In the afternoon, prosecutors played a 2002 interview of Graham done by ABC’s Diane Sawyer – in an effort, it appeared, to drive home their portrayal of the defendant.
Sawyer asked if Rilya was scared and frightened on the day she was allegedly taken by a DCF woman for "treatment.”
"No, Rilya hadn't yet developed a fear of people, to her it's a car ride and she was alright with it,” Graham replied.
