FULLERTON : Slain Girl’s Brother Still at Orangewood

A Juvenile Court commissioner on Thursday ordered that the infant brother of Marcelline Onick, the Fullerton toddler who was stabbed to death this month, remain in protective custody while investigators check allegations of negligence by the siblings’ mother.

Juvenile Court Commissioner Betty Farrell continued a custody hearing in Santa Ana on Vasshawn Robinson until March 28, pending the outcome of the investigation, said Jan Mark Dudman, an attorney representing the children’s mother, Joanne Boydston. Boydston, 25, was present at the hearing, but could not be reached for comment.

County social workers took the 9-month-old boy to Orangewood Children’s Home, a facility in Orange for abused or abandoned children, and launched an investigation shortly after the March 3 slaying of Marcelline, 3. On March 7, Farrell denied Boydston’s bid to regain custody.

Police accounts of the slaying say that Boydston was spending the night with a girlfriend and had left the children with Vasshawn’s father, Wes Robinson. When he left for work at 11 p.m., Robinson allegedly turned the children over to neighbor Robert Henderson. At 1:30 a.m., Henderson became sleepy and asked a visiting friend, the alleged killer, to watch the children.

Police said the friend, Michael Pacewitz of Fullerton, confessed to the stabbing hours later.