Couple Arrested From Beating Their 2 Year Old Son To Death

A Phoenix couple are facing first-degree murder and child
abuse charges in the beating death of their 2-year-old son.
Phoenix police officers and Phoenix Fire Department
paramedics responded to the family's apartment near
83rd Avenue and McDowell Road for a report of a child
not breathing. They found the boy unresponsive and
paramedics transported him to a local hospital where he
was pronounced dead.
A witness told police that he heard the boy's father,
Darnell Moses Alvarez, 24, disciplining him in the morning
and again in the afternoon. He said he did not see the
discipline but described it as "excessive."
The boy's mother, Davieanna Marlena Blake, 21, told
investigators that Alvarez hit the child with a belt after
discovering he had wet himself. Blake said she did not
intervene because she did not want to upset Alvarez any
further, according to the documents.
Blake said she then went to work and when she returned
home, she saw her son had multiple bruises on his body
and was lethargic. She told police that Alvarez did not want
to take the boy to the hospital because Child Protective
Services would be called, according to the court papers. The
child stopped breathing while the couple argued.
Alvarez told investigators that he hit his son two times with
a belt for urinating in the bed that morning. He said that later
in the day, he hit the child multiple times with a belt after he
defecated in his underwear and got feces all over the
bathroom.
According to court documents, the toddler had large bruises
on his legs, arms, b*ttocks, back and face. An autopsy
revealed the boy had a lacerated liver, internal bleeding and
bruising throughout his body.
Alvarez and Blake were arrested Thursday morning.
Alvarez's bond was set at $500,000 and Blake's bond was
set at $250,000.
The court documents show the couple have a history of
domestic violence and police suspect that they were under
the influence of alcohol or drugs.