Bradenton grandmother won’t be prosecuted for failing to report child abuse

Alexander Marr's grandmother will not be prosecuted for failing to report child abuse because prosecutors say they cannot prove what she knew.

At about noon April 12, 2015, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a duplex in the 700 block of 59th Avenue Terrace West, Bradenton, where Alexander lived with his mother, Dianna Marr, and Cardarelle, after reports the boy was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the home.

An autopsy found Alexander suffered traumatic injuries to his head and torso.

Dianna Marr, 33, and Trevor Cardarelle, 26, are each charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of Alexander Marr. They are set to stand trial during the two-week period beginning May 31.

Marr is out of jail on a $15,000 bond. Cardarelle remains held without bond after his April 12 arrest on a charge of being a convicted felon in possession of ammunition, a violation of his probation for a grand theft conviction.

Marr's mother, Karla Kay Gray, 54, had been charged with failure to report child abuse.

On Tuesday, the State Attorney’s Office formally dropped the charge of failing to report child abuse against Gray.

“It was unclear what information was provided to the defendant, or that whatever information was provided rose to the level of child abuse or neglect that should have been reported,” Assistant State Attorney Garrett Franzen wrote in an interdepartmental memorandum. “Based on these changes, the State would not be able to sustain a conviction for the charge alleged.”

During Gray’s interview with investigators after Alexander’s death, the grandmother detailed how Alexander was disciplined by his mother or her boyfriend, including having to hold dumbbells and drinking hot sauce. Gray said she confronted her daughter about the inappropriate punishment, but Marr became upset with her, according to investigators.

On Thursday, Gray’s defense attorney Mark Lipinski filed a motion asking the judge issue her a protection so that she doesn’t have to testify against her daughter. If Gray is forced to testify, she will assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

During the sheriff’s office investigation, it was reported that Gray had received pages ripped 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.

When questioned prior to her arrest about the journal pages, Gray told detectives she remembered receiving and reading them, but said she could not find them at her home. However, when left alone with her boyfriend in an interview room during a subsequent interview, a conversation was recorded in which Gray said she wished she had thrown the pages away and told them she didn't want to know anything.

The journal pages were never found. During depositions and discovery process, multiple witnesses have said that neither of the grandchildren ever had any physical marks or injuries that would indicate child abuse or neglect.

“The defendant herself never witnessed any acts or indications of child abuse or neglect,” Franzen wrote. “Additionally, the journal entries that were initially believed to be describing Cardarelle as a scary ‘monster’ may have actually been, according to the testimony of the grandmother and the victim’s aunt, simply lyrics quoted from a song.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Bradenton grandmother won’t be prosecuted for failing to report child abuse."