Background: The Knights Inn in Kissimmee, Fla. where Larry Rhodes Jr. killed his son in 2022 (Google Maps). Inset: Larry Rhodes Jr. (Osceola County Sheriff’s Office).
A Florida man found guilty of the murder of his 6-year-old son in 2022 will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Larry Rhodes Jr., 25, was arrested in 2022 after his son was found unconscious, his head in a toilet bowl. When first responders arrived at the scene on July 5, 2022, Rhodes and his girlfriend, Bianca Blaise, 28, said that the boy had possibly drowned. An investigation soon revealed that Rhodes and Blaise had severely beaten the boy after they caught him drinking out of the toilet. After he was taken to the hospital, the boy died, and both of his parents were charged with murder.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said at a press conference at the time that the boy’s “parents got very angry that he was drinking out of the toilet and started to beat him. First, the mother beat him. Then the father started repeatedly punching this little boy with closed fists. He punched him multiple times. In the head and the stomach area. This was a 6-year-old child.”
Lopez added, “Maybe he was thirsty. He went to the toilet. He was trying to survive. Mama caught him and the poor guy paid the price.”
According to charging documents, police said that other residents at the hotel heard a “thud” come from the room where Rhodes and Blaise were staying with their six children. Blaise reportedly admitted to police that she sometimes gave the children “whoopings,” but also told officers that the kids liked to recreate wrestling and UFC fights they saw on TV.
Blaise was also arrested, charged with child neglect.
Rhodes was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated child abuse, and four counts of child abuse in his son’s death and the abuse of his other children in December 2024. He was found guilty following a trial.
Court records stated Rhodes was sentenced to life in prison plus 35 years.
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