A mother and father let their eight-year-old son die of a curable cancer because they claim they didn't realize how sick he was. INSIDE EDITION has the details.
It's sentencing day for a mother and father who pleaded guilty to an unthinkable crime, they let their eight-year-old son die of a curable form of cancer.
The outraged judge let them have it.
"If anybody, anybody, didn't know this kid was sick, they are seriously, seriously disturbed," the judge said.
A Cleveland court heard that Willie Robinson Jr. died a horrible, painful death from a treatable form of cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma. The survival rate is around 90%.
A child-cancer doctor spoke in court and said, "I don't think you can put a yardstick to the amount of pain that William Robinson Jr. must have experienced."
But his parents never took him to a doctor. He weighed just 36-pounds when he died. He'd never even been to school.
Monica Hussing and William Robinson claimed they didn't realize how sick Willie was. They were treating him with over-the-counter cold medicine.
The mom claimed they had no money to get Willie medical treatment. Yet prosecutors said the couple found $87 to take a pit bull to the vet for a flea treatment.
Hussing pleaded guilty to attempted involuntary manslaughter last month, as did the boy's father.
Hussing's own sister spoke at the couple's sentencing. As another family member held up a photo of Willie, Sheila Slawinski slammed her sister.
"She knew he was sick and she knew exactly how sick he was," said Slawinski to the court.
INSIDE EDITION sat down with Slawiniski after the courtroom faceoff with her sister.
"They let him lay and die," said Slawinski
The parents, who have four other children together, addressed the judge.
"There's not a day goes by that I don't miss and love my son," said Hussing.
But the judge struggled to contain his anger after seeing a photo of the little boy's emaciated body.
"This picture looks very familiar to me, I've seen it before. I've seen it in pictures from Auschwitz and from the concentration camps," said the judge.
He sentenced both the mother and father to the maximum, eight years. Robinson was led away in handcuffs, followed immediately after by Hussing.
The couple's daughter insisted in an interview with INSIDE EDITION, that the prosecution was an injustice.
"I'm sure if my mom thought for any minute that it was cancer, she would have took him to the hospital. If he had complained we would have took him to the hospital, but he never complained one time about it," said Willie's sister.
Slawinsiki, however, sees things differently.
"No empathy. Not one day did they give him the opportunity to fight for his life," said Slawinski.
