Left: Marvin Rex Lake (El Paso Police Department); Right: Ahren Joshua DeHart (Obituary)
A former U.S. Army soldier will spend the rest of his life in a Texas prison for killing his now-former friend’s 13-month-old son by carrying the boy like a football and using wrestling moves on him.
Marvin Rex Lake, 27, was found guilty last week by an El Paso County jury on one count of capital murder of a person under 10 years of age for killing Ahren Joshua DeHart, 1, while babysitting in April 2021.
A judge subsequently sentenced the defendant to life in prison.
“I did not hurt his head,” Lake told police during one of his interviews. “I only caused the internal injuries.”
Formerly stationed at the two-state-spanning military base Fort Bliss, which is headquartered in El Paso, the defendant was discharged in 2020; the victim’s father was still stationed at the large outpost, as a U.S. Army specialist, at the time his baby boy was killed.
Before the tragic outcome, the pair were good friends.
“They’ve known him (Lake) for a while,” the child’s granduncle, Lawrence DeHart, told the El Paso Times a few weeks after the wholly unexpected violence. “This guy’s wife is coworkers with baby Ahren’s mom. So, they knew him and he was watching his stepkids at home and he was just going to watch baby Ahren for one day for like five hours. Who would ever think that it would turn into this monstrous situation where this man would take this baby’s life.”
On the day in question, April 12, 2021, Lake agreed to watch the boy because the DeHart’s normal babysitter had called in sick.
For awhile, things went well.
During a 5 p.m. or so video call, Lake showed Ahren’s mother and another witness that the child was crying but otherwise all right, according to a complaint filed in the case and obtained by the paper.
By 10:50 p.m., there was no chance for the boy. Lake called a third person to say Ahren had vomited something red — and he did not know whether it was blood or food. Lake also said the boy had become “rag-dolled.” Soon, Ahren’s mother and the third witness came home from work. He was rushed to El Paso Children’s Hospital.
Doctors determined the 13-month-old had brain damage, a skull fracture, lung hemorrhaging, abdominal injuries, as well as bruising on his back side, legs and chin, an affidavit filed in the case notes.
That same night, during his initial police interview, Lake first told investigators he had no idea how the child sustained any of those injuries. But his story also changed several times, police alleged.
Eventually, Lake admitted that the boy had accidentally slipped and fallen onto a futon while the two were performing wrestling moves. Later still, Lake said he was upset with the child for ripping a pillow — so he picked him up like he was a football but admitted “he had anger issues and did not realize his own strength,” according to the affidavit.
During a break in the initial interview, Lake called someone using his speakerphone. Police overheard him admit to causing the child’s internal injuries — but he disclaimed having had anything to do with what happened to the child’s head.
As the child languished in the hospital on life support for a few days, Lake was allowed to leave. Police executed a search warrant at his residence and took a detailed look at and inside the futon.
The day before Ahren died, Lake, on his own, went to police headquarters and demanded to be reimbursed for the damage done to his futon. Officers explained they had to expose the frame because of his earlier comments about the boy falling on, and being hurt by, the futon. That’s when the defendant directly told police he was responsible for the boy’s internal injuries — just not his head.
“Ahren was a loving child who could brighten any room,” the child’s obituary reads. “During his brief time on earth he enjoyed going to the park, playing with the family cat, and playing with his toys with his parents. Ahrens’ laugh as well as his smile was contagious, filling the hearts of those surrounding him.”
On April 19, 2021, Lake was arrested on suspicion of murder.
“They’re just grieving, and this is about the most devastating of a fashion as you can imagine,” Ahren’s uncle told the Times. “What they’ve had to go through that people don’t see or understand — holding your baby in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) while he takes his last breaths is horrific. It all brought tears to our eyes and we cried deep. You carry these types of wounds with you for life.”
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