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2-Year-Old Beaten For Crying Has Died

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TBO.com

Published: March 9, 2009

Updated: 03/09/2009 07:48 pm

Kenneth G. Lopez

TAMPA - When 2-year-old Gabrielle Randel didn't go to sleep easily Saturday night, his mother's boyfriend picked her up, wrapped her in a towel and then began to beat her.

As Kenneth Lopez beat and punched the tiny, wrapped figure, Gabrielle stopped crying. Sometime during the night, she stopped breathing.

On Sunday, she died.

Lopez, 21, has been charged with aggravated child abuse. The sheriff's office says the charges might be upgraded after an autopsy determines how Gabrielle died. Until then, Lopez will be held at the Orient Road Jail with no bond.

Lopez is the live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother, Danielle McCleary.

The sheriff's office said the beating occurred sometime Saturday when the girl did not want to go to sleep and would not stop crying. Lopez wrapped a white towel and a blanket around her arms and torso, then hit her repeatedly, the sheriff's office said.

The girl's mother called police at 5 a.m. Sunday when she noticed the toddler was not breathing, said Debbie Carter, sheriff's office spokeswoman. Gabrielle died at 1 p.m. at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Carter did not know how much time passed between the beating and when the mother noticed the girl was not breathing.

The couple had been living in Room 108 of the Homestead Inn at 5401 Beaumont Center Blvd. for about two weeks after moving from Illinois, the sheriff's office said.

A 3-year-old son of McCleary was in the room during the beating and is in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.

In similar cases, Hillsborough Kids, Inc., the agency under contract to handle child welfare services, would first try to find a family member to care for the child, said Terry Field, DCF spokesman.

The agency would have to determine if the family member's household is a safe environment, and those investigations could be expedited, he said.

In the interim, a child can be placed with a licensed foster family until officials can find a more permanent home.

A child might be returned to the mother if investigators decide conditions are safe and that the mother was capable of caring for the child.

"We always err on the side of caution," Field said.

He could not give any specifics about the son of McCleary. But he said the sheriff's office also investigates child abuse cases and may have had an investigator at the scene.

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