Eric Smith, Who At The Age Of 13 Beat a 4 Year Old To Death With Stones Before Sodimizing Him With A Stick Is Released From Prison

Eric Smith was just 13 when he brutally killed 4-year-old Derrick Robie. Now he is a free man.

Eric Smith was just 13 when he lured 4-year-old Derrick Robie into a stand of trees and choked him, hit him with rocks and poured the child's Kool-Aid over him. After the boy died, Smith sodomized him with a stick.

Eric Smith is 42 now. He is a free man living in Queens. He has a fiancée. What Derrick Robie's parents have are old photographs and a never-empty well of pain.

Last month, after decades of being denied, Smith was paroled after serving 28 years behind bars. He is forever changed, he told the parole board. He wants to live a normal life, he said. "I want to get married and raise a family," Smith told a TV station in 2009. "Pursue the American dream."

But John Tunney, who prosecuted Smith's case, has long said he fears Smith would kill again. "It's a huge gamble," Tunney told CBS' "48 Hours" in a segment now being streamed on Paramount +. "This parole decision is a high-risk enterprise, to be sure."