Hearing precedes, Fort Liberty soldier charged for death of his infant daughter

A preliminary hearing took place Wednesday at Fort Liberty for Sgt. Gabriel Ceville. He has been charged in the February 2023 death of his infant daughter.

Ceville, a soldier, is subject to the military justice system. Last month, the U.S. Army Office of Special Trial Counsel recommended he be charged with unpremeditated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and domestic violence. Tuesday's hearing is the first step towards a trial.

Eight-month-old Misty Lue Delatorre died of injuries "highly associated with abusive head trauma in infants," according to her autopsy, while she was alone with her father, Ceville.

A prosecutor said that Delatorre had so many wounds, they couldn’t be counted.

The girl was initially treated in Fayetteville and then airlifted to UNC Hospitals, according to the Medical Examiner's report, which lists injuries to her eyes, spine, head and neck.

"My home doesn't feel complete without her," the baby's mother, Alina Delatorre, told WRAL News from her home in California. "It feels like, no matter how hard I try, it's not complete."

The baby’s grandmother, Misty Bray, learned of these charges at a preliminary hearing on Fort Liberty.

It’s also where she learned of the extent of the baby’s injuries.

"It’s just hard you know. Every day is a struggle. We struggle every day to make sense of it to try and learn to deal with it but we can’t like how do you? How do you go every day knowing that this happened to her? We can’t change it yeah, but we’re still trying every day to live with it," Misty Bray, Misty Lue Delatorre's grandmother said.

The mother and grandmother remember the baby as a happy, determined little girl.

Ceville told WRAL Investigates that he knew he was under investigation, but he denied harming his child.

Only days before the baby's death, her parents had been involved in a heated custody battle that played out in Cumberland County court.

The maternal side of the family says Ceville had been absent from the child's life, and that he lived separately from the baby with another woman to whom he is now married.

Court records there show a judge granted primary custody to Ceville and secondary custody to the Delatorre. The baby was supposed to spend six months of the year with each parent. She was three days into her stay with her father when she was hospitalized.

Bray said the next court hearing will be in mid-June.