This story is based on a 9/13/2000 article in The Oregonian.

Christopher Robin Peraza was a three-year-old boy living in Gresham, OR.

On August 24, 2000, Christopher disappeared, apparently kidnapped. Gresham police, the F.B.I., and neighbors searched for him for two weeks. They finally found his battered and decomposing body in an abandoned house.

The Oregonian reports that Christopher had been "slapped, beaten on the head and face, burned with a cigarette, cut with glass, strangled with a belt and thrown down a flight of stairs."

What kind of monster could do a thing like that?

Robert Keith McCann, 27 years old, was arrested and charged with Christopher's death.

McCann had a long criminal record. It started with petty theft and graduated to car theft and other thefts. McCann was convicted and paroled.

Two months before the passage of Measure 11, in September of 1994, McCann summoned a pizza delivery person to an abandoned house and gave the woman a serious beating with a wine bottle. In June, 1995, he was convicted of Assault II, and spent two years and three months in prison.

Measure 11 was approved by two-thirds of the voters in November of 1994 and went into effect on Apri1 1, 1995. Had Measure 11 been in effect when McCann committed his Assault II, he would be in prison today. Three-year-old Christopher Robin Peraza would be playing with his toys.

Home | Search