Holly MatkinMiami, FL – An accused child-killer was attacked in his sleep and viciously pummeled by a group of fellow jail inmates who were familiar with “the nature of his pending charges,” according to police.
The assault took place at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center on March 1, according to the Miami Herald.
Investigators said five inmates tampered with the facility’s surveillance cameras prior to attacking 53-year-old Jorge Barahona while he was sleeping.
They left him with a nosebleed, multiple facial bruises, and a small cut on his nose, the Miami Herald reported.
Oscar Martinez, 29, Devaun Spaulding, 27, Klauss Moise, 20, Hakeem Drane, 24, and Armando Verdecia, 21, are all facing new charges as a result of the assault.
Police said the inmates carried out the beating because of “the nature of [Jorge’s] pending charges,” the Miami Herald reported.
Five #MiamiDade inmates charged with beating accused #foster child killer #JorgeBarahona at Pre-Trial Detention Center @BoentesT51 @Telemundo51 #dadecrime https://t.co/EcAMl2x0Xh pic.twitter.com/zcL0h14Pfd
— JRodriguez (@JRodzMIA) March 9, 2021
Jorge is awaiting trial on allegations he tortured his adopted 10-year-old children, Victor and Nubia, for years before murdering Nubia and stuffing her body in a chemical-filled trash bag in 2011, according to police.
Investigators found the bag containing the little girl tossed into the back of Jorge’s pest control truck, the Miami Herald reported.
Victor, who was covered in chemical burns, was found unconscious in the cab of the vehicle, police said.
5 inmates attack accused child killer Jorge Barahona as he slept in jail https://t.co/7iSLOr960c pic.twitter.com/gSMVe1a7qr
— WPTV (@WPTV) March 9, 2021
He later told investigators that his adoptive parents had viciously beaten him and his sister over the course of years, police said.
They also frequently tied them up and screamed at them, the 10-year-old boy said at the time.
According to police, Victor said he was tied up in the bathtub and could hear his adoptive parents beating his twin sister to death in another room, the Miami Herald reported.
Jorge and his 69-year-old wife, Carmen Barahona, had fostered the children before adopting them, KUTV reported.
They had been in their care since 2004.
Fort Lauderdale News Search Reviews (5 Inmates Attacked Accused Child Killer Jorge Barahona Inside Miami-Dade Jail: Police) Fort Lauderdale News – https://t.co/M4AbhWgNeo pic.twitter.com/NoYf375b5z
— 1 Fort Lauderdale (@1_ftl) March 9, 2021
The Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCF) fielded multiple allegations about the twins being abused over the years, but little was done to try to save them, according to the news outlet.
At least one allegation from 2005 involved accusations that Jorge had sexual abused Nubia more than once, KUTV reported.
In 2006, Nubia’s teacher reported she had been absent 17 times and showed up to school with a “huge bruise” on her neck, according to an investigative report.
FDCF concluded the injury was due to Nubia’s “hyperactivity,” KUTV reported.
The following year, the school principal reported the little girl was “afraid” to talk, smelled “rotten,” and did not seem to be getting enough food, according to an investigative report.
Another call to FDCF was made just four days before Nubia’s chemical-soaked body was found.
The report was placed by a therapist who was working with Jorge and Carmen’s niece.
“They are being taped up w/their arms and legs and kept in a bathtub-all day and all night and she undoes their arms to eat and she has been threatened not to say anything,” the FDFS record of the call noted.
During a Florida Senate special master report hearing in 2016, pediatrician and child abuse and neglect expert Dr. Eli Newberger testified that Jorge had forced the children to sleep in an ice-filled bathtub on a near-daily basis for three years, KUTV reported.
Newberger said Jorge put hot sauce on the twins’ genitals, ears and noses, and had also placed plastic bags over their heads.
He allegedly gave Nubia electric shocks lasting as long as a minute and beat both children with a mop and a shoe until they began bleeding, KUTV reported.
Victor underwent corrective surgery after Jorge punched him in the mouth, according to Newberger.
Jorge also allegedly doused the little boy with chemicals, deprived him of food for days at a time, and forced him to take pills that caused him to have seizures, KUTV reported.
Victor said Nubia told him shortly before her murder that she wanted to die because she couldn’t stand the suffering any longer, Newberger testified.
The doctor noted that Victor’s “entire arc of development has been nothing but deprivation, assaults, witnessing assaults, including a murderous assault on his sister,” according to the investigative report.
He will likely need psychological and psychiatric care for the rest of his life, and his “capacity to have a job and provide for himself, his ability to live independently, and his capacity to have a family and conduct himself as an adult are crippled” as a result of the abuse he endured, according to the report.
FDCF has since paid a $5 million settlement to Victor, who is now in his 20s.
Carmen pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and agreed to testify against Jorge, KUTV reported.
She is currently serving a life sentence, according to the Miami Herald.
Jorge’s trial was set to begin in April of 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
A new trial date has yet to be scheduled.
