Man accused in double murder didn't like 11-year-old's 'bad attitude'

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Upset over an 11-year-old's "bad attitude," Marlin Larice Joseph gunned down the girl's mother, then chased the elementary school student outside and killed her, recently released West Palm Beach police records show.

Joseph, 26, was arrested Tuesday in Lantana on two first-degree murder charges about two hours after authorities caught his 27-year-old cousin using his credit card at a Lantana gas station. Javarie Williams was arrested and is accused of allegedly hiding Joseph for days and lying to authorities about his whereabouts.

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Judge Dina Keever-Agrama ordered the cousins to not have contact with each other. Joseph is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without the possibility of posting bond. Williams remained in jail Wednesday afternoon on a $50,000 bond.

Joseph’s relatives declined to answer questions Wednesday morning as they left the courtroom. Some made obscene gestures and uttered profanities as they walked past reporters gathered outside the court.

Joseph's mother, who was dating the woman her son reportedly killed and considered herself a stepmother to the girl, tearfully pleaded for her son to turn himself in the day before his arrest.

Robin Denson said she was outside the West Palm Beach home Thursday evening when her son allegedly fired fatal shots into Kaladaa Crowell, 36, and her 11-year-old daughter, Kyra Inglett.

Police records indicate Crowell and Joseph, who also lived in the 822 Third St. home, had argued that day about the way Kyra "was not getting along with the other children who lived in the home."

Joseph claimed the 11-year-old, a fifth grade student at Northboro Elementary School in West Palm Beach, “had a bad attitude,” according to an arrest report.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Joseph’s brother said Joseph walked out of the bedroom they shared. Seconds later, the brother heard a gunshot and found Crowell sitting on the ground.

“Please call 911,” the mother pleaded, according to the police report.

Joseph’s brother ran out the front door and saw another brother wrestling with Joseph.

The second brother told authorities he heard gunfire, then saw Joseph run out of the home behind Kyra and shoot her. Police say the 11-year-old was shot in the head and the right forearm.

The brother grabbed Joseph, trying to keep him from running off, according to a police report.

A third brother, who also saw Joseph shoot Kyra, said Joseph ran back inside the home, fired at least two more shots, then fled in Crowell’s car.

Crowell died at the scene. Her daughter was still alive when authorities found her lying on the walkway in front of the home, but died later that night at St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Dozens gathered Wednesday morning at the south campus of Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens to honor the mother and daughter. A church representative asked the media not to enter the service.

Records suggest Joseph spent the four days between the killings and his arrest hiding at his cousin’s Lantana apartment. Early Friday, Joseph was spotted withdrawing money from a bank near Military Trail and Community Drive in suburban West Palm Beach.

On Tuesday morning, authorities were notified that one of Joseph’s credit cards was being used again -- this time at a Lantana gas station.

U.S. Marshals and West Palm Beach homicide investigators surrounded the gas station on South Dixie Highway in Lantana and watched Williams, the one reportedly using the card, leave the store. He made it into a white BMW, which had been reported stolen out of Lantana, before authorities detained him.

Williams reportedly kicked his cousin’s card under the BMW when it fell out of his pocket. He swore he didn’t use the card or even know Joseph.

“How could I use a card I don’t know the PIN for?” Williams reportedly asked.

But authorities said he knew the PIN for his cousin’s card and used it to take out money for Joseph, who he had been hiding in his apartment for days.

Williams was arrested on a count of making a false report to law enforcement regarding a capital felony case.

“Kaladaa was the sweetest person,” Denson said. “She’d give the shirt off her back to help anybody. … She was my girlfriend and that was our home.”

“I love my son, but I loved Kyra and Kaladaa, too,” Denson added.

Staff writer Rachel Frazin contributed to this report.

Cox Media Group