A 6-year-old Clayton County girl on Wednesday recounted her grandmother’s dying words during the second day of the murder trial of man accused of killing her.
“She told me she would love me in Heaven,” the girl told the Clayton County jury.
Latoris Antowyn Grovner, 22, is accused of beating Alena Marble to death in June 2011, using a vodka bottle and a cooking pot, then attempting to cover up the death with the help of the child’s mother.
Both Grovner and 23-year-old Kajul Harvey, the girl’s mother, face life in prison if convicted. Kajul Harvey will be tried separately.
Prosecutors claim that Kajul Harvey, who lived with her two children at Marble’s townhome, plotted with Grovner to kill her mother.
Allegedly, the motive was Marble’s objection to the relationship her daughter had with Grovner.
According to prosecutors, Kajul Harvey left a door open to the townhome on the morning of June 3, so that Grovner could enter. He then confronted Marble, prosecutors said, and beat the 59-year-old woman so badly she was unrecognizable. He then wrapped the body and placed it into the trunk of her own car, prosecutors say.
Later, prosecutors said Grovner and Harvey tried to clean up the scene, then went to an ATM to try to use Marble’s bank card to withdraw money.
Wednesday, the young witness, who was 4 at the time of the incident, described trying to help her grandmother, whom she called “Nana.”
“She was making a screaming sound,” the little girl said under questioning from Clayton County assistant district attorney Kathryn Powers. “I ran downstairs to get the phone. I was going to call 9-1-1.”
But the little girl said Grovner, whom she called “Tori,” stopped her.
“Where did Tori touch you?” Powers asked her.
“Here … my neck,” the girl said, pointing to her throat. “It felt painful.”
Grovner had a history of violence with the family. He was convicted in 2009 of beating and cutting Kajul Harvey, and was under court order barring him from coming to the home where she lived with Marble, according to court records.
He repeatedly disobeyed the protective order, which Harvey eventually had dropped, and witnesses testified that Marble remained concerned about what Grovner might do.
But Marble also feared Harvey, witnesses said.
“She was fearful of both of them,” Marble’s friend, Mary Smith, testified Wednesday morning. “She said she was afraid … that her daughter was going to kill her. They were fighting all the time.”
Police found Marble’s body in the trunk of her car on June 4, 2011, after someone saw the car parked in an apartment complex across Mt. Zion Road from where she lived, leaking blood.
“There was about a 20-foot stream,” said Clayton County police officer Justin Fisher, who responded to the call on the 85-degree day. “It looked like coagulated blood. …”
Marble’s relatives teared up as investigator Karl Stewart described Marble’s injuries and identified items prosecutors believe were used in the beating – a bloody vodka bottle and a dented pot.
The girl also testified to seeing her grandmother’s body as Grovner tried to dispose of it.
“Where did you see Nana?” Powers asked the little girl.
“In the trunk,” the 6-year-old said.
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