Mother testifies
to horror at
baby’s death

Beverly Kelly recalls unusual
details of the night she left her
child with her husband

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

The mother of a 22-month-old girl who died 16 years ago broke down as she described finding her daughter unconscious the night of May 8, 1985.

Beverly Kelly had left her daughter, Kareatha Gray, in her new husband's care for about an hour while she picked up maternity stockings at the nearby mall. When she returned, her daughter was no longer breathing. She had been alive only an hour before, eating hot dogs, french fries and beans for dinner.

On trial for second-degree murder for causing Kareatha's death is her stepfather, Vern King. The defense has called King a "loving father" who never hurt his stepdaughter.

Kelly said she was surprised her daughter had gone to bed without her when she returned home. "I always put her to bed."

Mother and daughter usually said their prayers together before Kelly tucked her in.

King told her they had played a little before Kareatha indicated she wanted to go to bed.

But the light in her daughter's bedroom was out, which didn't seem right because her daughter didn't like to be in the dark, Kelly said.When she opened the light in her daughter's bedroom, she immediately sensed something was wrong.

Her daughter's feet were dangling awkwardly off the edge of the bed, and as Kelly leaned over to kiss her, she noticed blood on Kareatha's tongue. The toddler's eyes were cloudy "like her tears were frozen on her face."

Kareatha's head rolled back when King picked her off the bed.

"I took her from him and started patting her back," Kelly recalled. As she held up her daughter, something fell out of her nose. "It looked like a piece of hot dog."

Despite efforts to revive her, Kareatha never regained consciousness. She was pronounced dead an hour later at Tripler Hospital.