BOSTON -- A 7-year-old boy declared clinically dead after a severe beating allegedly at the hands of his father did not want to spend the summer in Massachusetts, the boy's relatives said Wednesday.

Leslie G. Schuler, 36, and his girlfriend, Tiffany Hyman, 28, both of Worcester, were arraigned Tuesday in Central District Court on a series of charges in connection with the alleged beating of Nathaniel Turner, 7.

The boy was declared clinically dead on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a judge said the boy could be taken off life support at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

Schuler took the unconscious and unresponsive boy to St. Vincent's Hospital on Sunday with bruises on his face and torso. Officials said it appeared the abuse had been ongoing for several weeks.

Until about two months ago and for much of his life, Nathaniel lived with his grandmother in Alabama, but under a court order, the boy was sent to live with his father for the summer in Worcester.

The child's great aunt said the he was upset that he had to leave the Alabama home of his grandmother, Chrissy Taylor.

"He probably wanted to go home to Chrissy. He didn’t want to go, Chrissy said," great aunt Gardeen Carter said. "When she left Alabama yesterday, she was thinking he was still alive. She was going to go talk to him and make him wake up."

Schuler was charged with four counts of assault and battery on a child with injuries, three counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries, assault to murder and two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He was held on $250,000 bail.

There is no evidence that Hyman ever laid a hand on Nathaniel, but because she never stopped the alleged abuse, which her attorney called "disciplining," Hyman and Schuler both face assault charges, which could soon be upgraded to murder.

Hyman was charged with two counts of assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injuries. She was held on $50,000 bail.

"We've gone from a case of assault and battery and a case of causing serious bodily injury to a child to a homicide investigation. In regards to that, we will have more for you soon. But that is really all I can say," Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early said.

The boy's mother, Alicia Turner, and grandmother were at UMass Memorial Medical Center with the boy on Wednesday.

The child escaped death once when he was only 9-months-old when his family's Worcester house burned down. His mother was able to get Nathaniel out safely, but his 3-year-old brother, Diantia Schuler, died.

Alicia Turner said the 3-year-old was playing with a lighter.

Two years later, Turner gave temporary custody of the boy to his grandmother.