Detectives say the boy had seven broken ribs and several bruises. They called it one of the worst cases they had seen.
By TAMARA LUSH
Published December 31, 2003
TAMPA - Even the next-door neighbor didn't know that the couple in the trim blue house in West Park Estates had a baby boy.
Not until the police came.
On Dec. 19, neighbor Glenda Paonessa saw sheriff's deputies taking pictures of the couple's white Ford in the driveway at 4405 W Hanna Ave. That's when she saw the child seat.
Later that night, Paonessa said detectives came to her door.
Had she heard anything unusual? the detectives asked. Any fighting?
Paonessa said no. Detectives told her that her neighbors, Donald Dankert and Tanya Gruce, had a 4-month-old infant named Dylan Dankert who had been hurt.
In the days before Christmas, Paonessa assumed that Dylan was better.
"They kept turning the Christmas lights off and on," she said.
But on Tuesday, Paonessa received another visitor at her door: a reporter telling her that Dylan had died.
"I never heard anything," she said.
Dankert, 20, and Gruce, 28, were charged Tuesday with manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter of a child.
The details of the baby's death were horrific, said Hillsborough Sheriff's Lt. Rod Reder.
Investigators found seven broken ribs, many of which were in various stages of healing, indicating that the baby had been abused. The child also had bruises around the chest, forehead and abdomen, a perforated intestine and a torn anus.
"One of the investigators, a 26-year veteran, said it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen," said Reder.
Investigators say Dankert took his son to U.C.H.-Carrollwood at about noon on Dec. 19. The baby had no pulse, but revived briefly. The child was transferred to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 8 p.m.
Doctors at the hospitals spoke with sheriff's deputies. On Monday, deputies received a warrant and arrested the couple at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Reder explained that the officers arrested Dankert and Gruce on manslaughter charges for not seeking medical care for the child. The investigation is continuing and other charges could be filed, Reder said.
A spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families said the agency does an investigation whenever a child dies under suspicious circumstances. That has not been done in this case yet, said the spokesman.
Gruce is a paralegal in a downtown law firm, records show. She has no prior criminal record in Florida.
Dankert has an arrest history dating back to 1996, when he was 13, records show. He was arrested by Hillsborough deputies on burglary charges. In 2001, he was arrested on an aggravated battery charge, which was later amended to assault. He was acquitted of that charge in 2002.
Dylan Dankert is the second baby in Tampa to die in the past week.
On Dec. 24, Tampa police said Anibal Angel Rios shook his 3-month-old son to death. He has been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
A person answering the door at the Hanna Avenue home refused to talk about the death of Dylan Dankert.
Reginald Martell, Gruce's father, also declined comment.
