According to a newly released police report, five inmates beat up notorious accused child ki*ller Jorge Barahona at the Miami-Dade jail because of “the nature of his pending charges.”
For the March 1 attack at the county jail, also known as the Pre-Trial Detention Center, the men have all been charged with battery by a detainee.
According to the Miami-Dade police report, Barahona, 53, was attacked while sleeping and suffered multiple bruises on his face, a nosebleed, and a small cut on his nose.
Nubia Barahona, 10, was discovered dead on Valentine’s Day 2011 in Palm Beach County, her decomposing body swimming in chemicals and stuffed in a garbage bag in the flatbed of her adoptive father’s pest control truck. Victor, her brother, was in the truck cab with Jorge Barahona, alive but unconscious, with chemical burns on his body. Victor later told police that the Barahonas routinely and repeatedly abused him and his sister, beating them, tying them up, and screaming at them. He claimed he heard his adoptive parents beating his twin to death while he was tied up in a bathtub at the family’s West Miami-Dade home. Later, Nubia would be loaded into the back of the truck, with Jorge and Victor riding in the front.
Barahona is accused of mur*dering Nubia, 10, in February 2011, after torturing her and her twin brother for months inside the family’s Westchester home. Nubia’s chemical-soaked body was discovered in the back of Barahona’s pickup truck on Interstate 95 in Palm Beach County.
The high-profile case shook Florida’s child welfare agency, which approved the twins’ adoption but then ignored repeated allegations of abuse. Carmen Barahona, his ex-wife, accepted a life sentence and agreed to testify against him.
After years of delays, Barahona’s trial was set to begin in April 2020, but was pushed back when the COVID-19 crisis forced the closure of Miami-Dade’s criminal courthouse. The trial has still not been rescheduled. Barahona was granted a new defense attorney after it was revealed that his previous lawyer is being investigated for billing discrepancies.
If convicted at trial, Barahona faces the death penalty.
The five inmates charged with attacking him are: Armando Verdecia, 21, Hakeem Drane, 24, Klauss Moise, 20, Devaun Spaulding, 27 and Oscar Martinez, 29.
According to Miami-Dade Detective Cheick Kaba’s police report, the attack was not captured on surveillance video because the inmates tampered with the camera.
In Miami, David Ovalle covers crime and the courts. He graduated from the University of Southern California and joined the Herald as a sports reporter in 2002.
