Through closed-circuit television, former Georgia Tech football player Recardo Wimbush asked seven of his 10 children how school was going. Therian Wimbush asked each child if they still played with Legos and if they were continuing with their favorite hobbies — knitting, running, watching “My Little Pony.”
The seven children took turns sitting in front of a camera in a witness room at the Gwinnett County Courthouse, testifying in defense of their parents, accused of child abuse and false imprisonment for keeping one son in their Buford basement for 18 months and keeping another from medical care while a tumor grew on his abdomen.
The young children swiveled back and forth on an office chair and responded “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am” in small voices to their father and mother, from whom they have been separated since 2014 when Recardo Wimbush and Therian Wimbush were arrested and denied bond. The Wimbushes are acting as their own lawyers, which is why they were permitted to question the children.
The AJC is not identifying any of the Wimbush children because they are juveniles and because two of the children are alleged victims of abuse.
The parents greeted their children warmly; Therian Wimbush gave each of them a toothy smile and Recardo Wimbush asked if they were taking care of each other. The children detailed their lives with their parents, with all 10 siblings sleeping in the same bedroom before the older son was moved to the basement. One daughter recalled Therian Wimbush teaching her how to knit; another talked about doing yoga in the driveway.
Therian Wimbush asked each child about their younger brother’s tumor, and whether he had been sick or vomited while they lived together. Many of the children said he had not been sick. Some of the children were asked if they had a brother “who got in trouble more than the others,” and they said it was the brother who had been kept in the basement.
One 13-year-old daughter said that keeping the older brother in the basement may not have been the best way to discipline him for lying and taking things without permission.
“I know what he did was wrong … but now it feels like there were other ways we could've dealt with it,” the daughter said.
At one point, both Therian Wimbush and Recardo Wimbush became overwhelmed with emotion while questioning their oldest daughter. She said she missed living with her parents and that “they were loving. They always tried to do what was best for us." Recardo Wimbush began to cry, and Therian Wimbush attempted to take over questioning, but appeared to begin crying herself. Testimony resumed after a 15-minute recess.
Therian Wimbush briefly questioned the younger son with the tumor, who she also cross-examined Tuesday. She asked the boy whether he remembered going to a hospital, and he said he did not.
The eight children were the first defense witnesses called in the trial, which is expected to conclude Thursday morning, after the couple question the son who was kept in the basement. The two sons who were allegedly abused testified during the prosecution's case on Tuesday and were cross-examined by their parents. The prosecution rested its case earlier Wednesday afternoon.
