MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — It has been more than 14 years since a Florida Department of Environmental Protection contractor found a 10-year-old girl dead in Palm Beach County.
The contractor reported finding the decomposing body in a black garbage bag by the tubs of chemicals in a red Toyota pickup truck marked CJ Pest Control.
It was Valentine’s Day in 2011. The crime scene was on the shoulder of Interstate 95. The victim was Nubia Barahona. Detectives would later learn that her years of torture ended when she was the victim of a homicide by beating on Feb. 11, 2011, in Miami-Dade County.
On Tuesday, after years of delays in the murder case, Jorge Barahona, Nubia’s adoptive father and alleged killer, was in Miami-Dade County court when he smiled at his defense attorney before a competency hearing.
Jeniffer Rohrer, a psychologist, testified via Zoom before Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson, who will have to decide if Barahona is competent for trial.
Rohrer, a defense witness, testified that she had examined Barahona in August and September of 2023 and concluded that he suffered from a psychotic disorder, but she did not arrive at a specific diagnosis.
“I am not sure if it’s a delusional disorder, or a schizoaffective disorder, or schizophrenia, or even possibly a bipolar disorder with psychotic features,” Rohrer said, adding that she doesn’t believe him competent to stand trial.
Wolfson, who declared Barahona incompetent for trial last year, will also have to consider three other evaluations.
Lina Haji, a psychologist, is among the two experts who evaluated Barahona and believe he is competent to stand trial this time.
“He has never displayed any indication that he is out of touch with reality ... Mr. Barahona has always been able to articulate and verbalize that he is charged with murder, that he is facing the death penalty,” Haji said.
Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who has described the case as “horrific,” is likely to seek a death sentence if and when the case goes to trial.
In 2020, Nubia’s adoptive mother, Carmen Barahona, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges and was sentenced to life in prison in exchange for testimony in his case.
Carmen Barahona wasn’t present when a road ranger reported her husband’s truck on the shoulder of I-95 northbound in West Palm Beach, and when fire rescue personnel found Nubia’s twin, Victor, with chemical burns in the truck, and Jorge Barahona on the ground, records showed.
Jorge Barahona was in the Palm Beach County jail facing charges of attempted murder and child abuse in Victor’s case when detectives were investigating his home in Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade County Court records show prosecutors filed a case against Jorge Barahona on March 7, 2011. He faced 15 charges: First-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm, and seven counts of child neglect.
Miami-Dade County inmate records show corrections booked Jorge Barahona, then 53, on March 23, 2011.
County court records also show that the case that County Circuit Judge David Young had presided in closed on March 23, 2011, and the charges were transferred to the case that remains open with five additional charges.
County corrections records show Jorge Barahona, now 58, was a Metrowest Detention Center inmate.
The 20 charges he faces: First-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm, eight counts of child neglect, abuse of a corpse, attempted first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, and aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm.
Nubia’s twin survived and turned 25 on May 26. He was a teenage boy when the Florida Legislature agreed to pay him $3.75 million in damages as part of a settlement with the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Records obtained by The Miami Herald showed DCF admitted on March 14, 2011, that “significant gaps and failure in common sense, critical thinking, ownership, follow-through, and timely and accurate information sharing” had defined the care of the twins before the tragedy.
The records showed DCF had investigated the twins’ case twice before placing them with the Barahonas in 2004 and had an open investigation when Nubia was murdered over allegations of “bizarre punishment and physical injury.”
Related document: Final report of the Miami-Dade County grand jury
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