Murder of Nubia Barahona

On February 21, 2020, Carmen Barahona pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and multiple counts of aggravated child abuse. She also agreed to testify against Jorge as part of a plea deal. Her sentencing has been deferred until her cooperation with prosecutors against Jorge is complete. If she does not fully cooperate, she could still face the death penalty.

On February 26, 2020, lawyers for Jorge Barahona requested his trial date be delayed due to Carmen's plea deal.

In April of 2017, Victor Barahona received 3.75 million USD from Florida Lawmakers as part of a settlement with the Florida Department of Children and Families. The state's government said the department "poorly handled the case of the Barahona twins" and that the department "had many red flags they did not pay attention to".

In January 2016, Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer set the case for jury selection to start July 25. The case was set to begin in September 2015, but the Barahonas' attorneys requested more time. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the couple.

The Barahonas have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child abuse charges. Jorge Barahona's trial on the murder of Nubia and the attempted murder of Victor was set to begin on September 28, 2015.

Nubia Docter Barahona, a ten-year-old American girl, was abused and murdered on February 11, 2011. Her body was found February 14, 2011, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag in the bed of her adoptive father's pickup truck on the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her body had partially decomposed from being covered in chemicals, possibly pesticides. Her twin brother, Victor Docter Barahona, was in the cab of the truck with his father, suffering seizures from chemical burns and inhalation of toxic gas.

Her adoptive parents Jorge and Carmen Barahona were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and child neglect on March 23, 2011. They face the death penalty if convicted.

At 5:00 am on Monday, February 14, 2011, a Road Ranger noticed a red Toyota pickup truck on the shoulder of northbound I-95 between Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and 45th Street in West Palm Beach. When the truck was still there two and a half hours later, he called the police.

Victor was initially taken to nearby St. Mary's Medical Center (West Palm Beach), then transferred two days later to Jackson Memorial Hospital's burn center in Miami. He had suffered "severe internal reactions" to the inhalation of toxic fumes in the truck, and had chemical burns over large portions of his body. Doctors also found several previous injuries to the boy, including a broken collarbone, broken arm, scars on his buttocks and lower abdomen, and rope marks on both wrists. Victor was finally released on March 2, 2011, and placed in a therapeutic foster home.

On February 10, 2011, four days before Jorge Barahona's truck was found on the side of the road, the therapist of Carmen Barahona's granddaughter, Alessandra, placed a call to child welfare officials. Alessandra had alleged to her therapist that while visiting her grandmother's house, twins Nubia and Victor were bound by their hands and feet and made to stand for hours in a bathtub. Their hands were unbound only when it was time to eat, she claimed, and she also alleged that she was not permitted to speak to them when she used the bathroom. The therapist told the operator that Alessandra felt threatened by her grandmother to keep quiet. Carmen allegedly told Alessandra not to tell people about how the twins were treated because it was a "family secret".

The twins were formally adopted in May 2009. In 2010, complaints similar to the ones in 2007 were again raised by school authorities, this time adding that Nubia was losing her hair. DCF was met with the same reasoning from the Barahonas—that it was caused by her endocrine condition and medication she was taking for it—and the investigation was dropped again.

Wilkins called upon David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of The Miami Herald and current president of the Children's Movement of Florida, Coral Gables attorney Bobby Martinez, a former U.S. Attorney in South Florida, and James Sewell, former assistant commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and chair of the task force that investigated the 2009 death of Broward County foster child Gabriel Myers, to look into the handling of the Barahona case. The panel subsequently called DCF's handling of the case "inept" and a "failure of common sense and listening".

The Barahonas began the adoption process of the twins in 2008, but were met with resistance from the twins' guardian ad litem, Paul Neumann. They claimed Neumann was operating "behind [their] backs", unfairly interfering with their adoption attempt. They claimed they had a "personality conflict" with Neumann and cited that as the reason he was accusing them of neglect. To override him, the Barahonas wrote letters appealing to people as high up as then-governor Charlie Crist. Neumann was removed as the twins' guardian ad litem without explanation shortly before the adoption was finalized.

Further complaints were filed in 2007: school authorities reported that Nubia was extremely thin, always hungry, and had an unpleasant odor. DCF investigated the claims, but were met with insistence from the Barahonas that Nubia's condition was not from hygiene problems or neglect, but caused by her medical condition. The investigation was dropped.

In 2005, Nubia reportedly told someone at her school that her father was molesting her. Unclear on whether she had meant her birth father or her foster father, DCF investigated. They determined that she had meant her birth father and the case was closed. Then, in 2006, school staff called DCF to report a large bruise on Nubia's face that they suspected was child abuse. The Barahonas were ordered to bring her to an appointment with the Department of Health's Child Protection Team in Miami, but did not show up until a week later. By then, most of the bruising had disappeared and state doctors agreed with the Barahonas' assertion that the bruise was from a fall.

The twins were removed from their mother's care in 2003 and placed with their father, Victor Bustillo, but they did not stay with him long. In 2004 he was charged with sexual battery of a child not in his care. The twins were placed in foster care, and eventually ended up in the home of Jorge and Carmen Barahona in Miami, Florida. The couple had already adopted a boy with autism. Jorge owned a pest control business; Carmen was a homemaker.

Fraternal twins Nubia and Victor Docter were born on May 26, 2000, to Sandra K. Docter, a mother with drug and alcohol abuse issues. Their mother had borne four children before them, all of whom had been taken from her by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Nubia was “ born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which meant her body couldn’t make two key hormones: the one that helps the body retain salt and another, called cortisol, that helps the body deal with physical stress.” It was recommended she be placed in a medical foster home, but she was instead allowed to stay with her biological mother, who claimed to be sober.