Judge OK's Jorge Barahona To Face Dade Murder Charge
WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami.com) - Jorge Barahona is headed back to Miami-Dade county, where he will face murder and child abuse charges in the death of his adopted daughter, Nubia Barahona, following a ruling Monday by a Palm Beach county judge.
Barahona is already facing charges of attempted murder in Palm Beach county, where he was found on St. Valentine's Day in the front seat of his truck along I-95, his 10-year-old son Victor having a seizure beside him. Police said Victor, Nubia's twin, had been doused with toxic chemicals in an attempt to kill him. Nubia's decomposing body was found in the rear of the truck.
Miami-Dade investigators decided Nubia had been killed at the Barahona's Southwest Miami-Dade home, and charged her adopted mother, Carmen Barahona, with murder and a host of child abuse charges. They also charged Jorge Barahona in her murder, and asked for him to be sent to Miami-Dade to stand trial on those charges.
Judge Karen Miller granted that request Monday, but did not say when the transfer would take place. Once transferred, Barahona would likely be jailed until his trial, as is his wife, because the murder charge against him carries no bond.
Miami-Dade police say the Barahonas beat Nubia to death after a long history of child abuse which also included Victor. They often bound the twins hand and foot, police claim, and forced them to sit in a bathtub for days on end. The abuse was overlooked by caseworkers for the Department of Children and Families, despite a number of warning events.
The handling of the case prompted a blue-ribbon panel investigation, and a promise by DCF to change a number of procedures to help prevent cases like the Barahonas' from falling through the cracks.
Victor Barahona is in foster care, after surviving the chemical burns allegedly inflicted by his father, and two other adopted children who were living in the Barahonas' home when Nubia was killed have also been placed in foster care.
As part of the court hearing Monday, Judge Miller set Jorge Barahona's attempted murder trial for January 30th, 2012.
