The death of her father has left Kiara Robinson with what she described as a life sentence of grief.

“He was a human being,” Robinson said inside a courtroom in the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in Baltimore. “His life mattered.”

Her father, Donny Robinson, was a sharp dresser and passionate music listener who worked as a general laborer in construction and landscaping. He was 61.

She said her father deserves to be remembered for who he was as a person — not how he died.

Baltimore Police found his body on March 10, 2025, inside a refrigerator in an apartment at the Gilmor Homes affordable housing community in Sandtown-Winchester. He had been stabbed two times in the neck.

On Friday, Baltimore Circuit Judge Cynthia H. Jones sentenced the man who hid the body, Damerum Burroughs, to serve 10 years in prison for accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.

“You’re going to have a life sentence of reflection,” Jones told Burroughs. “You weren’t thinking.”

Burroughs, 47, of Southwest Baltimore, had been staying with Donny Robinson at the apartment on Balmor Court after being released from prison for a 2013 conviction for armed robbery.

“He housed him. He helped him. And he treated him like trash,” said India Robinson, Donny Robinson’s other daughter.

Burroughs apologized for refusing to cooperate with police and appeared to deny responsibility for the fatal stabbing.

“I wish I would’ve said something sooner,” Burroughs said. “He was a good man.”

Though Burroughs seemed to blame the killing on other people, there’s no credible evidence that’s what happened.

As part of a plea agreement reached on Jan. 14, prosecutors dropped charges, including first-degree murder.

No one else has been charged in the case.

“This case boils down to what the state could prove,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Dunty, chief of the Homicide Division in the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office.

Burroughs, he said, did his best to prevent police officers and firefighters from finding the body. He refused to let them inside the apartment and then left and did not come back.

First responders found a love seat blocking the door to the refrigerator. Police executed search and seizure warrants and discovered blood on the sofa. They also found a large knife with a broken handle.

The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death was a homicide caused by multiple sharp force injuries.

Burroughs still faces other legal consequences: He must appear before the Maryland Parole Commission for violating the terms of his release.