PINE HILLS, Fla. — When 3-year-old Xavier Mokarzel-Satchel drank milk from the carton Friday, he didn’t know it would begin the series of abusive events that would lead to his death, records show.
Callene Marcia Barton, 58, and Lakesha Lewis, 28, are charged with first-degree murder in the toddler’s death in their unit at the Eagle Lakes apartment complex. His mother, Brandi Mokarzel, was arrested on charges of child neglect.
Arrest reports for all three women detail how the boy’s mother tried to protect him, but deputies say she could have better protected him by getting away from her two roommates sooner.
According to the documents, Barton beat the toddler with a plastic rod used to open window blinds until it broke. She then threw him down a hallway, causing his neck to turn and his body to start shaking “like he was seizing.”
His mother, who was in the apartment at the time, tried to call police, the report says, but Barton knocked her cellphone out of her hands and told her if she called police, she would “end” her.
Mokarzel told deputies Barton said this because she didn’t want to lose another child to Child Protective Services, the report states.
The boy’s mother than ran to a neighbor’s unit to call 911 and came back to find her son lying on his back with “food coming from his nose,” the report states.
According to the report, Mokarzel told deputies that both Barton and Lewis had struck her son in the past, leaving marks on his body.
“Based on this statement Brandi has demonstrated a neglect to care for her son’s safety and allowed him to remain in a non-safe environment that has now led to his death,” the report states.
The 3-year-old was transported to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4:35 p.m., the report states.
Lewis and Barton are both being held at the Orange County jail after a judge denied them bail over the weekend.
Mokarzel will appear before a judge Monday as the prosecution answers questions about the probable cause used to arrest raised by a judge Saturday.
Cox Media Group
