Law&Crime Sidebar - Mom Let Abusive Teen Boyfriend Murder Her 4-Year-Old Daughter

Episode Date: September 6, 2025

Destiny Rhoades is expected to spend decades behind bars after accepting a plea deal on a neglect charge in Indiana court. Rhoades’ underage boyfriend, Christian Gonzalez, was convicted of killing Rhoades’ four-year-old daughter Octavia Aquino earlier this year. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber spoke with the victim’s paternal grandmother, Linda Alvarez, about what life has been like in the year since the little girl’s death.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mother will spend the next few decades in prison after the teenager she was dating killed her four-year-old daughter. We are going to be sitting down with Octavia Aquino's grandmother to talk about the case's resolution after more than a year of investigation, court hearings, and grief. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime, Jesse Weber. This disturbing case out of Evansville, Indiana, has finally come to a conclusion as the last suspect, the last defendant, has pleaded guilty and now has accepted her punishment from a Vanderberg Superior Court judge. We have been covering this case for more than a year now. This is after authorities arrested 24-year-old Destiny Rhodes and her then 16-year-old lover, Christian,

Gonzales in June of 2024. According to Evansville police, Rhodes left her four-year-old daughter, Octavia Quino, in Gonzalez's care. Even after, by the way, she learned he had abused her. And that was a terrible decision to make. A medical examiner determined that Octavia had blunt forced trauma to the head and neck when she was rushed to a hospital. She was kept on life support for several days and her biological father decided to donate her organs so that other people would have a better chance of living a life. And she died on Father's Day. By the way, the New York Post reported that a father out of the Bronx here in New York, Freddie Ramirez, father to a young boy with autism, received Octavia's kidney, saved his life.

He'd been very sick. He was on dialysis. And obviously, you see, Octavia has been affecting people's lives, even in her death. Now, I want to do a recap on this case because it's very important to know how we got here. The Rhodes had an unofficial custody sharing agreement with Octavia's father, but at this time, the four-year-old was living with her mom and her mom's underage boyfriend, along with several other women in this apartment out in Evansville. During a police interview, Rhodes admitted that she would sometimes leave Octavia alone with Gonzalez and that he would swat her hand or take away her tablet as a form of discipline.

And when an unresponsive Octavia was taken to the hospital on June 14th, investigators went to the apartment. They were looking for Gonzalez, and they found him hiding in a bathroom. By the way, he told police his name was Alex and that he was 20 years old. That was a lie. And a background check revealed he was Christian Gonzalez, a teen reported missing from Fort Wayne. And police also discovered that Rhodes had been arrested just a few months before that

for helping Gonzalez escape from a juvenile detention facility. A protective order was in place to protect Gonzalez from Rhodes, but he was living with her. Now, police interviewed the female roommates as well, and one said that the day before Octavia was found unresponsive, she came downstairs and saw concerning marks on this little girl's neck. And when she asked Gonzalez about it, he said, oh, a cat scratched her. This was more than a scratch, though. The roommate said she saw bruising and even a human bite mark on Octavia's arm.

At one point, Octavia was throwing up, so the roommate took her to the McDonald's where Rhodes had been working, and the police report states that Octavia herself told her mom that Gonzalez had bitten her and placed his hand over her mouth. So she was aware of what was going on. Now, Rhodes reportedly came home, confronted Gonzalez about what happened, but he wouldn't admit to anything, apparently. And then she and the roommate decided to lie and tell Gonzalez that there was a camera in the living room. that had caught everything, right? You know, keep him on notice, keep him on watch. And then Gonzalez allegedly admitted to biting Octavia on the arm because he claims the four-year-old bit him first.

This is according to a police report. And after all that, Rhodes ended up leaving Octavia again in Gonzalez's care. There was one time where she went to get food, leave on the night of June 13th, and then again on June 14th when she went to work. There were more details that were revealed in police reports that documented what Rhodes told investigators. Quote, I confirmed that Destiny had seen the injuries on the victim's neck on June 13th. When I asked Destiny about the injuries to the victim's neck, she admitted that it appeared that the male had most likely grabbed her around the neck with his hand. When I asked why her daughter had thrown up, she said that it was most likely due to her being anxious.

Destiny agrees that this could have been because her daughter had just been strangled, and bit by the mail. When I asked Destiny why she had decided to leave her daughter with the mail after learning about the prior abuse, she explained that she did not believe anything bad would happen because the male believed there was a camera in the living room. When I asked Destiny why she didn't call the police to report the abuse, she said that she wanted to. She also stated that she was worried about what would happen to the mail because he was only 16 years old. She was concerned that he would be removed from her. She eventually admitted that she was concerned that either she or the male would get in trouble. I asked if she was concerned that the male would

hurt the child again. Destiny said because of this incident, she told the mail that he needed to go back home. When I asked why this discussion happened the night before, she stated it was because of her daughter. Destiny said she had tried to get the mail to go home several times, but that he was a, quote, very manipulative child and she loved him as, quote, a son. Talking lawsuits here, you know who, by the way, are experts in litigation? Our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. This is America's largest injury law firm. This is a firm with over 1,000 attorneys. You know why they have so many? Because they win a lot. Listen to this. They have recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. Think about that. In the past few months, a client in Florida received $12

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by clicking the link below or scanning the QR code on screen. Now Gonzalez was originally charged with battery resulting in serious bodily injury. That was upgraded to felony murder when Octavia died. And after a trial back in January, a jury convicted him. And since he was a minor, he wasn't eligible for the death penalty. In fact, in sentencing documents, the court addresses Gonzalez's age by saying court finds mitigating circumstance to be that the defendant was only 16 years of age at the time of the offense. Court further finds that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstance.

Now, Gonzalez, he's appealing his conviction. That appeal was apparently filed in March of 2025 within days of his. sentencing. The latest court records show that an entire transcript of Gonzalez's trial has now been transferred to the appellate court for review. But we have to talk about Rhodes. So Rhodes decided not to go to trial. Instead, she entered a guilty plea. Now, she originally had been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor where the child commits the offense of murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, invasion of privacy, which appears to have been connected to the order that Rhodes stay away from Gonzalez. But in the end, the contributing to the

delinquency of a minor and invasion of privacy charges. They were dismissed in exchange for Rhodes pleading guilty to the neglect charge. And according to her sentencing paperwork, she was sentenced on August 7th to 20 years in prison plus five years probation. All right, I am joined once again by Linda Alvarez. This is Octavia's paternal grandmother who, if anybody's been following us here on Sidebar, knows that we have had a number of conversations. We've spoken several times about how this case during the course of this case and as it's progressed, Linda, it is so good to see you again. This is a major update. Do you feel like you finally have a sense of resolution? I don't want to say closure, but a sense of resolution now that both of the guilty parties are in prison

and they're going to be in prison for quite some time? I do, definitely for him. I've always had mixed feelings with destiny because of the relationship we had. It just, it makes me sad, but I'm glad that, I'm glad that it's over and we don't have to continue to keep dealing with the courts and everything else. I think that the punishment that she received I don't want to say as fair like how I feel about the case

you know when it comes to her just differs from everybody else and I don't know I just I can never really put it into words even when I spoke at court I had a hard time like verbalizing exactly what I wanted to say to her I had it like all written down and thought I was just so angry with her and then when it came to be the time to talk to her and stuff. Like, I just couldn't say the things that I thought I was going to be able to say. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm glad that it's all said and done. I mean, I feel like

it'll never be closure. And obviously, nothing's going to bring Octavia back. What exactly did you say in court and what were you hoping to say? Right after. everything had happened, I had made this really long Facebook post that I had posted to her page and it was pretty hateful to say the least and it was just what I was feeling at the time and I was just having a hard time deciding what I wanted to say to her

and so I printed that out and I brought that with me and I also had wrote a poem It was called One Year Without Octavia. And when I think it was back on Father's Day, even though Father's Day fell a day before, technically, the year, she died on Father's Day. So that's always going to be significant for us. We did like a dove release in honor of Octavia, and I read that poem.

And so I brought the poem with me to court, and I read it in court also. I started to read the other. letter and I just I kept getting fumbled with my words and just feeling really bad with some of the things that was there. It was really hard just seeing her there and watching her cry and knowing

what was, you know, going to happen to her for such a long time. And I just didn't have the heart to be mean to her because I loved her so much and deep down I do. I still love her. You know, she was like

my daughter. And And, you know, I've said it before. I didn't just lose Octavia. I lost her, too. So that's just something I've been struggling with. I understand. It's such a complicated situation. Do you want to stay in touch with her?

I mean, do you want to visit her in prison? Do you want to talk to her in prison? I don't know if I want to visit. I don't know if I want to visit her in prison. I have talked to her twice. since court, I did two video visits because I was able to just tell her how I felt and how I was sorry that things are the way that they were. And to let her know, because I didn't know if she knew or not, that I had given an urn of ashes to her dad at court. And so he would have them for

when she was released. You know, she had, you know, that part of her daughter. still at least, you know, because I mean, it's her child, too. She deserves to have that. And, I don't know, we just kind of just talked about old times and just fun things we used to do.

And I asked her if she was scared and she said that she was at peace and that she knew her daughter would want her to live and survive and, you know, get better and have a better life and do better things whenever she did get out you know linda gonzalez decided to take his case to trial didn't work

out well for him um destiny chose to take a plea deal um didn't go to trial what was your reaction to that um i was sad um i didn't know i was kind of confused because i the prosecutors originally said that they weren't even going to offer her a plea deal. So it kind of threw me off. And then I was kind of sad. I mean, I knew that if she went to trial that she would get found guilty, I just didn't know, like, how long she would get. And, you know, what bothers me is that I've known.

like I've seen her as a mom. I've seen her as a person and she's made some she's made some horrible mistakes like doing the things that she did with with Christian and everything like there's there's no excuse for any of that and I'm not trying to make excuses for her because what she did was wrong and she made poor poor choices and decisions and you know the outcome of it is losing my granddaughter her daughter but um it just um i it was just um i i it was just kind of difficult because it was like set in stone instead of like court not knowing what the judge was going to give her and maybe being a little bit more lenient on her since she had already lost her daughter so that i guess you know

it was a little hard because it was like okay this is what she's going to do there's you know there's no like okay the judge will have a little bit of mercy on her like this is what it is does she realize those mistakes i mean obviously she pled guilty and there could be a number of reasons why someone would plead guilty but does she realize the the choices that she made led to octavia's death does she realize her mistakes she does she she was telling me how i mean she was telling me how stupid she is and that she was sorry that you know she didn't listen to me and that you know she she apologized for lying and and just i mean she was just she sounded sincere i mean i can't know what's in someone's heart but hearing her and just her voice and

knowing her i want to believe that you know she she means it and she said that she took the plea deal and pled guilty because she knew that that it was her fault. She knew that she didn't, she said that she failed as a mom and that she didn't protect her daughter and that, you know, she should have did better. She shouldn't have had him around. She should have listened to us. She should have, you know, just a long list of should have, should have, should have, should have, and didn't, didn't. You know, I started this by talking to you about this might be a sense of resolution, legal resolution, but as we reported

earlier, Gonzalez immediately appealed his case, and obviously that makes its way to the court system. There's always a potential that, you know, conviction, a sentence could be overturned if you appeal, not a guarantee. It's kind of an uphill battle, but at the same time, how do you feel about that, knowing that that part still continues? To be honest, I'm not worried about. I'm not worried about it. It was an ironclad trial. It's, what's the word, customary or like it, it's just, you know, that's what they do, you know, to file an appeal. But I mean, there's really nothing that, you know, they can say, oh, well, this happened. And, you know, there's a discrepancy. During the whole trial, there was one objection or two objections. One was overruled and one was sustained.

So, I mean, there's really nothing that they can argue. So, I mean, even the prosecutor's not worried about them getting, you know, the appeal. They're, she said she's 99.9% positive. It would get denied. Yeah. I mean, based on what I've seen, I tend to agree. I don't really know what the argument would be for an appeal or what the arguments they might mount, but, you know, we'll wait and see.

Before I let you go, I want to talk a little bit more about Octavia. You've described her before she sounded like such a special little girl. I've seen videos. She was incredible, beautiful. And I reported before that even in her death, she's affecting people's lives. Her organs were donated. She saved the life of a father in the Bronx. Her kidney was donated.

What can you tell us about that? I mean, that's pretty incredible. You know, even in her death, she's helping people. Um, yeah, um, it's been awesome. I've, to this day, still been in contact with two of the recipients. Um, the lady in Wisconsin whose son received her heart has sent me, um, like voids, like memos with the heartbeat so I can hear it. Um, the, the people in New York message me often, just asking how we're doing and, you know, just give updates. And I, I get to follow. of them and see like them, you know, live their happy life and her live on through them. So it's sad that she's not here, but it brings a lot of joy knowing that she's living on through others and others are still here because of her. That's, it's difficult to think about, but it's a beautiful thing to also think about.

Linda, you're a very special person. We always welcome talking to you and this door is always open. to continue the conversation about the case about Octavia. Thank you so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it. And we are sending nothing but well wishes to you, your family, and also let's extend it to all the recipients who are living a new life because of Octavia. So thank you so much.

Thank you, Jesse. I appreciate you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.