Kayden Gavarrete was 7 when police found him dead, badly injured and weighing 32 pounds, according to court records and investigators.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Authorities said an Indianapolis boy was starved, beaten and left in a home where his worsening condition went untreated. The father and his girlfriend were each sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty in the death of the man’s 7-year-old son.

The sentences close the criminal case against Kevin Gavarrete and Julia Sizemore in the December 2024 death of Kayden Gavarrete, whose condition stunned police, medics and prosecutors. Marion County authorities said the child was severely underweight, covered in injuries and suffering from complications tied to malnutrition when he was found unresponsive. The plea deal spared both defendants from a trial and locked in decades-long prison terms, while dropping several other charges.

Police were called to the family’s home in the 1300 block of South Pershing Avenue on the near southwest side of Indianapolis on the afternoon of Dec. 22, 2024. Officers arrived after a report of a possible death investigation and found Kayden unresponsive inside the residence. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene. Detectives later described bruises, cuts and burn marks on his face and body, along with signs that he had been malnourished for some time. By the time of sentencing, the outline of the case had become clear: prosecutors said the abuse had not been a single outburst but a pattern of neglect and violence that ended days before Christmas. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears called it “among the worst cases we have seen,” a remark repeated after the sentences were imposed.

The adults gave investigators explanations that did not account for the child’s condition. Kevin Gavarrete told police the boy’s injuries came from tantrums and from throwing himself to the ground too hard. He also said Kayden had been sick, was refusing food and water, and had not been taken to a hospital because he feared how medical staff would react. Investigators said those claims stood against what they saw inside the home and what the coroner later documented. Kayden weighed 32 pounds when he died. The Marion County Coroner’s Office listed multiple blunt force trauma injuries as the cause of death and cited malnutrition as a contributing factor. Sizemore told detectives she had not wanted to get into Gavarrete’s “personal business,” according to accounts aired in local coverage. She also acknowledged she did not get the boy medical help. Unknowns remain in the public record, including the precise day-by-day timeline of the abuse inside the house and how many outside adults saw Kayden during his final weeks.

The case drew intense attention in Indianapolis because of the child’s age, the condition of his body and the setting of the death. Authorities said Kayden had been homeschooled for about a year, a decision his father linked to bullying. That detail mattered because it suggested the boy had been pulled away from teachers, school staff and classmates who might otherwise have seen his decline. Prosecutors later said the child’s injuries included bruises, scratches, lacerations and small burn marks in different stages of healing, a pattern often cited in abuse cases as a sign the harm happened over time rather than all at once. When the case first moved through court in early 2025, the prosecutor’s office publicly noted that murder charges were still possible. That possibility underscored how seriously authorities viewed the facts even before the plea agreement was reached. In the end, the state accepted guilty pleas to neglect counts that guaranteed lengthy prison terms without the uncertainty of a jury trial.

Marion Superior Judge Marshelle Dawkins Broadwell handed down the prison terms after both defendants agreed to plead guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death and related neglect charges tied to placing the child in an endangering situation. Under the agreements, each defendant received 30 years in a state correctional facility. Other counts, including battery and criminal confinement allegations reported earlier in the case, were dismissed as part of the resolution. Court coverage from the sentencing hearing showed family members of the boy in attendance, with roughly 20 relatives present. The negotiated outcome also answered a key procedural question that had hovered over the case for more than a year: whether prosecutors would pursue murder counts or accept a plea that produced fixed sentences. By late February 2026, that question was settled. The criminal case ended not with testimony from doctors, detectives and relatives at trial, but with guilty pleas and a judge’s order sending both defendants to prison for decades.

The hearing carried the restrained tone common to plea-and-sentencing cases, but the details gave it unusual weight. Both defendants offered brief apologies, saying they were sorry and that what happened should not have happened. The boy’s relatives filled part of the courtroom, some wearing memorial shirts with Kayden’s name and picture. Prosecutors framed the case as one that would stay with them long after the file was closed. Mears, who noted that his own child was the same age as Kayden, said the case was gut-wrenching. That remark helped explain why the sentencing drew broad local coverage despite the absence of a trial. The most striking facts had already emerged: a 7-year-old boy was found dead in his home, his body marked by injury and severe weight loss, and the two adults responsible for his care admitted criminal neglect. What remains now is the lasting record of the case and the prison terms that began with the judge’s order.

Both defendants have been sentenced, as of March 22, 2026, and the immediate criminal proceedings appear complete, with the 30-year terms standing as the next major milestone in a case that began with a 911 response on Dec. 22, 2024.

Author note: Last updated March 22, 2026.