Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Police: Jorge Barahona beat girl, who 'screamed and cried until she was dead'

By John Lantigua , Daphne Duret and Ana M. Valdes
Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Updated: 12:43 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Posted: 9:47 p.m. Monday, March 7, 2011

MIAMI — Nubia Barahona "screamed and cried until she was dead," according to Miami-Dade police.

The 10-year-old's life ended, they say, under a barrage of blows from her enraged adoptive father, likely on the same day a state child welfare investigator visited the home where she and her twin brother spent their last moments together tied up in a bathtub.

Jorge Barahona, 54, a self-employed exterminator who once wrote of his desire to care for the girl, now faces charges of murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect in Nubia's death. A Miami judge signed the arrest warrant Friday, a day before police arrested Barahona's 60-year-old wife, Carmen, on similar charges.

News of Jorge Barahona's arrest was not made public until Monday's news conference.

According to arrest warrants, Jorge Barahona "repeatedly punched and beat Nubia" until she was dead on Feb. 11 at the family's home in western Miami-Dade County.

That was three days before her body, stuffed in a plastic bag, was found in Barahona's truck along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. Her twin, Victor, was covered in chemical burns and in critical condition.

As investigators continue to release details of Nubia's final days and an independent review panel assesses the state Department of Children and Families' role in the tragedy, Miami-Dade County prosecutors are hinting they could seek the death penalty against the Barahonas.

"If there ever was a case where the death penalty might apply, it would be this case," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.

Reports detail what investigators say was a long-running pattern of torture and neglect at the hands of the Barahonas, foster parents granted the right to adopt Victor and Nubia over the objections of their aunt and uncle in Texas who had sought custody.  FULL STORY

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