Amber Peterson was 12 years old when her mother told her about the half-brother she never knew.

It was through a newspaper article her mother shared that Peterson learned about Andrew Setzer’s horrific beating death in August 1999, at age 4, at the hands of his foster mother, Theresa Barroso.

Theresa Barroso, 45, and Alvin Lee Robinson, 49, were convicted in 2001 for the beating death of 4-year-old Andrew Setzer at their Perris home. Both were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Robinson was paroled and released from custody on Sept. 1, 2022. Barroso is eligible for her first parole hearing in February 2023. (Courtesy of California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Peterson was only 18 months old when her mother left her father, Thomas “Cowboy” Setzer, and moved to Hawaii. Setzer later fathered Andrew with another woman and the boy was removed from their custody and, ultimately, placed in the care of Barroso and her husband, Alvin Lee Robinson, on June 2, 1999.

The Perris couple had custody of Andrew for only 60 days, but in that time Barroso subjected the boy to torture and beatings, including repeated kicks to his genitals and even making him eat his own feces after defecating in his pants. Robinson failed to do anything about the abuse and never reported Barroso to social services or police.

Andrew suffered a fatal injury after Barroso struck him in the face, knocking him off a toddler’s chair he was standing on as punishment, and he hit his head on a nightstand.

Barroso and Robinson, who were 24 and 28 years old, respectively, at the time of their arrests, were tried and convicted of Andrew’s murder. Both were sentenced in 2001 to 25 years to life in prison.

On Sept. 1, Robinson was released from a substance abuse treatment facility at Corcoran State Prison after serving more than 20 years behind bars, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Barroso, meanwhile, is eligible for her first parole hearing in February 2023.

Sister appalled

Peterson not only feels cheated that she never got to know her half-brother, but she’s horrified that child killers would be released from prison. And she’s frustrated that widespread abuses in the foster care system have been known for decades, and yet still exist today.

“I think it should not even be a question that Andy’s murderers get out, ever,” Peterson, 35, said during a recent interview at her Riverside apartment. “They were certified by the state, and they manipulated the system for money, and then they do 20 years and  they get to go home and they get to be around other children?”

Prior to Robinson’s release, Peterson said she flooded the Governor’s Office with letters she and her friends wrote urging stronger penalties against child abusers and that Robinson remain incarcerated. “Twenty-two years isn’t enough,” Peterson said.

But it was to no avail. According to the carceral system, Robinson had served his time and qualified for parole.

Parole granted

At a parole board hearing in February, hearing officers determined Robinson qualified for parole after he admitted what he did was wrong and had shown growth during his time in custody.

Despite having only a first-grade education, Robinson said he had found God, listened to his audio Bible daily, and used breathing techniques to control his anger, saying he “prays his way” out of toxic emotions.

“This crime should have never happened, it shouldn’t have never happened,” Robinson said during his parole hearing, according to the hearing transcript. “I look at it as I was selfish. I look at it that I didn’t care about nobody but me. You know, I wanted to make Theresa happy at all costs. I thought I was in love with this woman.”

Parole board Commissioner Neil Schneider questioned how Robinson and Barroso even qualified to be foster parents, given Robinson’s history of domestic violence and a vandalism conviction after he trashed his and Barroso’s home during a quarrel.

Schneider said there were “many suspects in this crime,” and that Robinson was merely one of them.

“In my mind, you and Ms. Barroso had no business being foster parents, zero. The system failed. Riverside County, I have no idea what I think of them. I hope people lost their job,” Schneider said. “I can’t even think of what happened in the whole foster system there, but I can’t, I can’t concern myself with that.”

The board also took into account that when Robinson was pressured by other inmates in 2011 to assault another inmate, he refrained, and a year prior to that reported another inmate who was trying to pollute the prison’s drinking water, according to the hearing transcript.

Additionally, Robinson served as a cook while in prison and said that, despite suffering a stroke while in custody and having limited mobility on his left side, along with knee and wrist problems, he still wanted to be a cook in civilian life.

“We find that you do not pose an unreasonable risk to public safety and are therefore suitable for parole,” Schneider told Robinson during the hearing.

Six months later, Robinson was released from custody.

Failed reform efforts

Efforts to reform the foster care system and safeguard children from abusive foster parents have been pushed for decades in California, but little progress has been made.

As far back as 1992, the Little Hoover Commission noted in a report that despite spending $1.4 billion on welfare services for abused and neglected children, the state “has failed miserably to ensure that these children, ripped from their troubled homes, are given the necessary nurturing for them to become well-rounded adults and productive citizens.”

And in a 2003 report by the same state oversight panel, Chairman Michael A. Alpert said the greatest obstacle to meaningful reform in the foster care system is an “unwillingness on the part of both state and local leaders to take responsibility for reforming the foster care system.”

“With no one in charge, the foster care system fumbles forward, and often backward, and costs children and families their happiness, their prosperity and even their lives,” Alpert said in the report.

“The problem is that no one will say they are responsible for any kind of change,” Peterson said. “Because if they did that, then that person would be responsible when this continues to happen.”

Gene Kennedy, a spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, did not respond to questions about what reforms the county has implemented in its foster care and child protective services system since Andrew’s death.

Biological mother speaks out

Also critical of the foster care system is Andrew’s biological mother, Laura Utley.

In a telephone interview, Utley said she was serving time at the California Institution for Women in Corona when, 11 days shy of her release, she was informed by a prison chaplain of her son’s death.

Now married with a 20-year-old son of her own and working as a caretaker, Utley said she has paid a great price for the mistakes of her past. Andrew’s death, she said, devastated her.

“It ruined my life. I’ve done the best I can to pull myself together, but it will never go away,” Utley said. “I feel lots of guilt, lots of shame. The system is supposed to be there for people who have addictions and help reunite them with their families, they’re not supposed to put them in situations, or leave them in situations, where they’re going to be harmed or killed.

“I loved my son and he was my life. I just made some bad decisions when I was growing up, and my son paid the price.”

Lifelong impact

As for Peterson, she said she has carried Andrew with her in her heart since learning about him as a preteen. She attended his funeral and, since then, has thought about him almost daily. Now married with a 5-year-old son, she often looks at him and sees Andrew, or “Andy” as she calls him.

She said she often dreams about her brother and the people responsible for his death, and laments having never gotten the chance to know him. She does her best to cope, but can’t help getting angry at times, knowing that Robinson has been giving a second chance at life, and Barroso possibly will get that chance as well, while Andrew never even made it to kindergarten.

“It just enrages me,” Peterson said. “It breaks my heart that other children have to go through this. One child should be enough.”