‘That little baby girl did not deserve that.’ Man gets life in prison for beating child to death

Ten-month-old Tariah White clearly suffered during the last two and half hours of her life, a prosecutor argued in a Bradenton courtroom Friday afternoon.

Saving the little girl’s family the trauma of having to again see photos from her autopsy, attorneys approached the bench and the prosecutor used her laptop to show the judge photos to remind him of the bruises all over Tariah’s face and severity of the fracture to her skull.

Stillness filed the courtroom.

On Aug. 23, 2016, Tariah and her then 3-year-old brother had been left in their mother’s boyfriend Eric “Kiwi” Neri Jr.’s care while their mother was at work. When the children’s grandmother showed up, Tariah was already cold to the touch and had discharge coming from her nose.

The infant was rushed to Manatee Memorial Hospital where she was declared dead. It was later determined that a single blow to the back of Tariah’s head, fracturing her skull and causing bleeding in the brain, killed her.

Neri gave Bradenton police detectives four conflicting accounts for the infant’s injuries.

“We will never know exactly how that happened, but one thing we know is that little baby girl did not deserve that,” Assistant State Attorney Julie Binkley said.

A jury found Eric “Kiwi” Neri Jr. guilty in April of second-degree murder as charged in the infant’s death.

Binkley argued that Neri deserved life in prison. The judge agreed.

“This case has been a tragedy,” said Judge Gilbert Smith Jr. before handing down the sentence.

During the nearly 2-hour-long hearing, Tariah’s family spoke about the loss their family suffered.

Sitting in jail garb, handcuffed and shackled, Tariah’s mother spoke about how her life changed after losing her daughter, leading her to make poor decisions.

“My life just went downhill,” Tronesh Ackerman said. “I just didn’t have a care in the world … because I lost my kids.”

Ackerman has been in federal custody since pleading guilty to several armed robberies of fast-food restaurants and a convenience store.

Assistant Public Defender Anne Hunter argued that Neri deserved a lighter punishment because at the time of Tairah’s death, he was only 21 years old, an age at which the brain is not fully developed. Because he is bipolar and has ADHD and because of his use of marijuana and cocaine at a young age, his brain is even less mature than that of other people his age, Hunter argued.

“A 16-year-old knows enough not to kill a baby. A 16-year-old knows enough that you need to be careful with a baby,” Binkley later countered.

The baby’s grandmother, Sherrian Collins; aunt, Troneisha Ackerman; and great-aunt, Lorraine Crawford, also got an opportunity to describe the impact of Tariah on their lives.

“She was only in my life a short period of time, but at the time she and my grandsons were the love of life,” Collins said.

Collins also said she will never forget how she saw her granddaughter.

The loss was one that broke their entire close-knit family, Crawford explained, not just the baby’s mother.

“This child was more than my niece. The day that I lost her, was the day my life changed,” Troneisha Ackerman said. “We didn’t get a chance to watch her grow.”

Neri remains in custody at the Manatee County jail, as he has been for nearly three years since his arrest after Tariah’s death. He is still facing charges of abusing Tariah’s brother, now 6 years old.

This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 5:45 PM.