Before she was allegedly killed, little Octavia Aquino reportedly lived in fear of her mother's teenage boyfriend.
"She did not like him at all," Linda Alvarez, Octavia's grandmother, told HNGN in an interview Tuesday. "She was scared of him."
Alvarez, 45, said it was so obvious her "smart" and "independent" 4-year-old granddaughter, who was "just so full of life" and looking forward to starting preschool didn't connect with her mother's 16-year-old boyfriend and would-be alleged murderer Christian Gonzalez.
A friend of Alvarez's first hinted to the abysmal relationship between Gonzalez and Octavia earlier this year.
"'You could tell that she didn't like Christian, and Christian didn't really care for her too much,'" the friend reportedly told the grandmother prior to the girl's death. "She could tell by the way that she acted around him, she was scared of him."
Gonzalez was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Octavia's death earlier this month, after she was found unresponsive at the Evansville, Indiana, home she shared with her 23-year-old mom Destiny Rhoades, Gonzalez, and three other female roommates, according to police.
He has not yet entered a plea to the charge.
On June 14, officers responding to a call of a medical emergency at the residence found Octavia unresponsive and "cold to the touch" while Rhoades was at work, according to police.
Octavia suffered from visible bruising and a bite mark. She never regained consciousness and died two days later at the hospital.
During police questioning, Gonzalez allegedly admitted to biting the girl after he purported she bit him first the night before -- an allegation that was uncharacteristic of Alvarez's "loving" grandchild.
"The only thing I could think of is if he even is telling the truth, and she did bite him, he deserved it, because she was probably trying to protect herself," Alvarez explained.
A medical examiner determined Octavia died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck and ruled her death a homicide.
Her mother has since been charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, according to police.
She will be laid to rest Friday after donating her organs last week.
