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The West Miami-Dade man accused of torturing and murdering his adopted 10-year-old daughter claims evidence that will help him in court is being withheld.
Jorge Barahona, in a handwritten letter to a judge, says he wants access to audio cassettes he apparently made of himself interacting with his adopted children.
But, in his letter, he does not explain exactly why he believes the recordings would help his defense.
He and his wife, Carmen Barahona, are accused of murdering adopted daughter Nubia in February 2011, after months of torture and abuse. Her twin brother, Victor, was also starved, tortured and beaten, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors in Miami-Dade on Tuesday told Circuit Judge William Thomas that they did not have the cassettes and had not listened to them.
According to the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office, the tapes have not been released to defense attorneys there, meaning they cannot yet be released publicly.
The case drew widespread headlines after police found Nubia’s chemical-soaked body in the back of Jorge Barahona’s pickup truck along Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach. Victor was severely injured, and Jorge Barahona was found passed out nearby.
Jorge and Carmen Barahona are facing the death penalty for Nubia’s murder in Miami-Dade, while Jorge is facing an attempted murder charge for allegedly trying to kill Victor in Palm Beach.
Nubia’s death cast a harsh spotlight on the Florida Department of Children and Families, which had received numerous abuse complaints against the Barahonas.
In his letter, which has now been placed into the court file, Barahona says two microcassettes seized by police from his truck shows “conversations that I had with my daughter Nubia and my son Victor.”
“We talk about what was going on at home and at school,” Barahona wrote.
He also claims two other cassettes exist, one of which depicts him calling a state-appointed guardian tasked with overseeing the adopted children, and the other “contains a typical morning getting ready for school.”
In his two-page letter, Barahona also complains about his court-appointed lawyer in Palm Beach County.
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