MIAMI (WSVN) - A South Florida judge has ruled that Jorge Barahona is not competent to stand trial for the murder of his adopted daughter in 2011.
The charges against Barahona stem from a gruesome incident where police discovered 10-year-old Nubi Barahona dead, wrapped in a plastic bag and covered with chemicals, in the bed of a pickup truck on the side of I-95.
Meanwhile, her twin brother, Victor, was found in the cab suffering seizures from chemical burns. He survived.
“I’m now prepared to adjudicate Mr. Barahona incompetent to proceed,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson. “The doctors all find, well, the two doctors find that the defendant needs and meets criteria for involuntary hospitalization.”
Barahona has been in jail for 13 years.
In 2011, on Valentine’s Day, police found 10-year-old Barahona dead as her body decomposed in the bed of a pickup truck in West Palm Beach.
Barahona was dead for three days.
Throughout the investigation, investigators learned the twins were beaten and tortured repeatedly. The siblings were said to have been starved and tied up in the family’s bathtub in Westchester.
The siblings’ mother, Carmen Barahona, their adoptive mother, pleaded guilty and accepted a life sentence in a plea deal.
The case rocked the state’s child welfare agency, which sent someone to investigate the home, days before the murder and overlooked repeated claims of abuse.
Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released the following statement:
“I regret that the horrific case against Jorge Barahona is yet again delayed. The psychologists’ opinions that he cannot assist his new attorney in mounting his own legal defense is frustrating to all. Hopefully, he will be found to be competent to stand trial soon, and this case will finally move forward providing justice for Nubia and her twin brother Victor.”
Another possibility could also occur in this trial. If a judge determines Barahona to be “unrestorable,” the charges against him could be dropped.
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