A judge ruled on Wednesday that Jorge Barahona is competent to stand trial for the charges related to the 2011 murder of his 10-year-old adoptive daughter and the abuse of her twin.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson, who had declared Barahona incompetent last year, announced her ruling after clinical psychologists with the defense and prosecution disagreed.
The judge’s ruling comes more than 14 years after Thomas Butler noticed a red Toyota pickup truck marked CJ Pest Control parked on the shoulder of Interstate 95 northbound in Palm Beach County.
Butler, a Florida Department of Transportation road ranger, was concerned about the truck’s driver being on the ground and reported there was a need for fire rescue personnel, records show.
West Palm Beach Fire Rescue personnel found Barahona, of Miami-Dade County, feeling ill, and 10-year-old Victor, his adoptive son, suffering from chemical burns in the cab of the truck, records show.
A Florida Department of Environmental Protection contractor responded to deal with the containers full of pest control chemicals that were on the bed of Barahona’s pickup truck, records show.
The FDEP contractor found human remains decomposing in a black garbage bag, and homicide detectives later identified the victim as Victor’s twin sister, 10-year-old Nubia, records show.
It was Valentine’s Day in 2011.
Miami-Dade homicide detectives would later learn that Nubia was the victim of a homicide by beating on Feb. 11, 2011, at the home that Barahona shared with his wife, Carmen Barahona.
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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