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Attorney says informer is now unlikely to testify

Robin Lunceford shared a courthouse holding cell with the caregiver of Rilya Wilson.

MIAMI - A star witness in the murder case against the caregiver of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old foster child whose disappearance forced massive changes in state child care, is no longer willing to cooperate with prosecutors, her attorney said Thursday.

Robin Lunceford has experienced a "number of things" in recent months and it is "very much in doubt" that she will testify against Geralyn Graham, Ellis Rubin said.

He wouldn't discuss what led to the reluctance, but Lunceford has been living in an isolation cell and has complained of being mistreated by jail guards, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Lunceford is a career criminal who shared a courthouse holding cell with Graham. She gave police details she said she gleaned after forming a flirtatious relationship with Graham, 59.

Graham was indicted in March.

Lunceford told police that she was told by Graham that the child was evil and was smothered with a pillow and buried in a ravine.

Investigators think Graham killed Rilya around December 2000, more than 15 months before the state Department of Children & Families reported the girl missing to police.

Lunceford, 42, has been convicted in more than a dozen robberies and has escaped from three prisons.