Justice delayed, again, in torture death of Nubia Barahona
Jorge Barahona brought his adopted son to Palm Beach County to die. A road ranger spotted Barahona’s truck on the shoulder of northbound I-95 on Valentine’s Day 2011.
Father and son were drenched in a stew of pesticides and acids. Barahona was unconscious. The boy, 10, was convulsing. He survived.
His twin sister, Nubia, was already dead, tortured and killed in the family’s Miami-Dade County home. Her decomposing body was wrapped in a plastic bag and put in the truck bed.
Barahona and his wife were charged with first-degree murder and multiple counts of child abuse.
The child torture case made national headlines. It forced the state to pay millions to the surviving son. It put the failures of Florida’s Department of Children and Family Services on display.
But 12 years later, Jorge Barahona has not stood trial. And after more than a decade of delay, the chances that Barahona will face a jury are fading again.
A March trial date in Miami Dade County Circuit Court will almost certainly be pushed back, Miami-Dade County state attorney spokesman Ed Griffith said. Until then, Barahona remains in the county jail.
Lawyers are starting from scratch. Barahona’s original court-appointed lead defense attorney withdrew two years ago, citing an investigation into whether he overbilled the state for Barahona’s case and other death penalty defendants.
Several months later, two other court-ordered attorneys asked to be removed.
That resets the trial clock to zero. “The new defense lawyers for Barahona are telling the court that they must start the defense from the very beginning,” said Griffith in a statement.
Barahona’s defense counsel declined to comment.
Carmen Barahona pled guilty to first-degree murder in 2020. She is a key prosecution witness against her ex-husband. She is now in her early 70s.
It wasn’t just the twins. In 2020, a series I co-wrote for USA Today revealed how Florida put other foster children into the arms of abusers. Read more, here. (Note: Some readers may encounter a paywall. )
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