Teen charged with murder of 4-year-old child appears in court

By Ben Laufer

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    EVANSVILLE, Indiana (WEVV) — A 16 year-old teen appeared in court for charges of murder, related to the death of his girlfriend’s 4 year-old daughter in Evansville.

According to authorities, Christian Gonzalez is accused of murdering 4 year-old Octavia Aquino, over the weekend at an apartment on Spring Valley Rd.

He appeared before a judge in Vanderburgh County Superior Court. Gonzalez was waived as a juvenile, and is being tried as an adult for Murder. He did not enter a plea.

An autopsy was scheduled on Tuesday for Octavia. Investigators say she was found with multiple bruises, as well as a bite mark on her arm.

According to authorities, Octavia’s mother, 23 year-old Destiny Rhoades, was at work when one of her roommates noticed a bite mark, as well as several bruises on Octavia’s neck. When the roommate asked Gonzalez about the bruises and the bite mark, the report says Gonzalez told them it was from the cat. Authorities say Gonzalez later admitted to the bite mark, but only because Octavia bit him first.

“Given the fact that there were numerous bruises on her body, especially around the neck area, and bite marks from a human, its obvious that this was dealt to her by another human. They are in jail now.” explained Officer Taylor Merriss with Evansville Police.

Authorities say one of the roommates told police that Octavia seemed to be ‘staring off and was nauseous’ the night before she was found.

According to the report, Rhoades did not decide to take any action after she was made aware of the wounds to Octavia.

“There were times when she could’ve taken the child to the hospital, she didn’t want to and a lot of that had to do with the fact that she had a 16 year-old boyfriend in her home who was missing out of Fort Wayne for the second time.” continued Officer Merriss.

Authorities say the next morning on Friday, June 14th, Rhoades’ roommate was coming home from working third shift, when she noticed Octavia on the couch, laying with her eyes open, unresponsive, and cold to the touch.

The roommate told police that Gonzalez was sitting next to Octavia when she came home. She told them when she asked Gonzalez what happened, he told her ‘she sleeps with her eyes open.’

Gonzalez was taken into custody, after initially lying to police about his identity.

Destiny Rhoades is facing the charge of Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Death.

Gonzalez is due back in court on Friday, June 21st.

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