Trial begins for Norfolk man accused of failing to protect 4-year-old son from beating death
When paramedic Brian Ledwell arrived at a home in Norfolk’s Roland Park neighborhood in November 2018, he found a 4-year-old lying on a sofa wearing just a shirt and a diaper.
The child had no pulse and wasn’t breathing, Ledwell testified Monday in Norfolk Circuit Court. He rushed the boy out to an ambulance to try to resuscitate him.
It was there, Ledwell said, that he saw the extent of Larkin Carr’s injuries. The toddler was bruised from head to toe. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. An autopsy later showed he died from blunt-force trauma to his abdomen. Ninety to 100 bruises covered his thin body.
The only person at the house on Sangamon Avenue when paramedics arrived was 14-year-old Robert “Robbie” Bolsinger-Hartshorn, Ledwell testified. Bolsinger’s mother, Catherine Seals, was engaged to Larkin’s father and the two lived with Smith and his two young boys.
Investigators eventually charged three people in Larkin’s death: Bolsinger, his mother, and Larkin’s father, Hank Larkin Smith.
Bolsinger, whom police said admitted to beating Larkin on several occasions, is charged as an adult with second-degree murder. He’s scheduled to go to trial in February. Seals pleaded guilty in 2019 to felony homicide and felony child abuse or neglect. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to ask for a sentence of no more than 21 years and six months.
Smith also was charged with felony homicide and child abuse and neglect. His trial began Monday and is expected to last about a week. Seals is among the witnesses expected to testify against him.
Although prosecutors haven’t accused Smith or Seals of beating Larkin, they contend the two are also responsible because they failed to protect him from Bolsinger.
Prosecutor David Vitto told jurors during opening arguments Monday that Larkin frequently told his father Bolsinger was hitting him. And when questioned by investigators, Smith admitted to seeing bruises on the boy and lying to protect Bolsinger, Vitto said.
A few days before he died, Larkin was vomiting and defecating blood, Vitto said. Instead of taking his son to the hospital, Smith gave him a bath and went to the store to get some Pepto Bismol for him, the prosecutor said.
On the day Larkin died, Smith and Seals left him and his 3-year-old brother with Bolsinger while they went to pick up Seals’ daughter in Virginia Beach. They were on their way home when Bolsinger called to tell them Larkin was unresponsive. Seals then called 911.
The defense team, however, argued in opening statements that Bolsinger was solely responsible for Larkin’s death. They said Smith and Seals were doing the best they could to provide a safe and loving home for all their children and had no idea that Bolsinger was capable of such violence.
Jane Harper, 757-222-5097, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
