Death of Bradenton boy, 4, ruled a homicide; grandmother faces charge of not reporting child abuse
MANATEE -- Investigators have arrested the grandmother of a Bradenton boy who they say was beaten to death on the day he turned 4.
Karla Kay Gray was charged with failure to report child abuse in the slaying of Alexander Marr. She was arrested about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to sheriff's office spokesman Dave Bristow.
Other arrests are pending in a case detectives say they are investigating as a homicide.
Alexander was pronounced dead April 12 at the duplex where the boy lived in the 700 block of 59th Avenue Terrace West, after deputies answered a 911 call from family.
An arrest warrant affidavit for Gray said Alexander had been beaten about the head and torso, leaving him with a fractured skull, brain trauma and a lacerated liver.
Alexander's death has been ruled a homicide, according to the affidavit.
Deputies said Alexander lived in the duplex with his mother, Dianna Marr, 32, and her boyfriend, Trevor Cardarelle, 25.
Cardarelle was arrested April 12 after he was found in possession of ammunition,
which violates his probation for a grand-theft conviction, detectives reported.
The Gray affidavit describes how Alexander was found face down on a mattress, wearing nothing but his underwear and with bruises on the back of his legs and back when investigators arrived to the home. Alexander also appeared to have dry blood on his mouth and nose and there was some on the wall next to the bed, according to the report.
"During the preliminary investigation, no witnesses were able to give a plausible explanation for Alexander's death," investigator Jaime Rivera wrote in the affidavit.
An interview with Marr's sister, who lives in the adjoining duplex, revealed she had ripped out pages from Alexander's 7-year-old half-sister's journal in which the girl described being afraid of dark figure in her room and said Cardarelle was a monster.
"I wish I was not so bad, so I could not keep getting in trouble," she said the journal stated.
Out of concern, Marr's sister said she gave the pages to their mother, Gray.
Detectives questioned Gray about the journal pages and she recalled receiving and reading them, but said she could not find them at her home.
During a subsequent interview, Gray and her boyfriend made statements in the interview room when the detective was not present but which were recorded, saying she wished she had thrown the pages away and told them she didn't want to know anything. Gray's boyfriend blamed their situation on Marr's sister, even though admitting she was only looking out for the children. Gray whispered back that Marr was going to be so mad, but her boyfriend said there was nothing they could do because she didn't want help and was worried about Cardarelle.
Alexander's half-sister confirmed during an interview with detectives that she had written the journal entries but a search warrant of Gray's home did not locate them.
During Gray's initial interview with investigators, she told them how she had not trusted Cardarelle, her daughter's new boyfriend, because of his criminal record.
Gray also detailed discipline she said the boy received at the hands of his mother or her boyfriend, including having to hold dumbbells and drinking hot sauce. Gray said she confronted her daughter, Dianna Marr, about the inappropriate punishment, but Marr became upset with her.
Cardarelle is being held without bond at the Manatee County jail on charges of violating probation for a grand theft conviction and being a felon in possession of ammunition.
Gray also admitted having known Cardarelle and her daughter had guns in the home, and said she had planned to report it to his probation officer the next day.
Jessica De Leon, Herald law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter@JDeLeon1012.
This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Death of Bradenton boy, 4, ruled a homicide; grandmother faces charge of not reporting child abuse ."