Dad didn’t stop wife’s deadly abuse of 8-year-old, GA authorities say. He’s sentenced
The father of an 8-year-old girl who authorities say was beaten to death with a rolling pin was convicted on charges connected to her killing and sentenced to prison, Georgia prosecutors said.
A jury found Cledir Barros, 38, guilty of child cruelty Monday, Sept. 16, after prosecutors said he failed to protect his daughter, Sayra Barros, from violent abuse at the hands of her stepmother, according to a news release from the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, prosecutors said. His wife, Natiela Barros, was charged with murder in Sayra’s death, though her case is still pending.
It was the third trial for Cledir Barros after the first two ended in mistrials, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He initially faced a second-degree murder charge, but it was dismissed before the first trial. A second child cruelty charge was also removed following the second trial.
“We extend our condolences to the three young girls who tragically lost their sister,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in a statement.
“This beautiful girl needed her father to protect her. He failed to do that,” Austin-Gatson said.
Sayra was found dead after a “medical emergency” at the family’s home in Bethlehem on Jan. 30, McClatchy News reported.
Investigators said Natiela Barros got angry with her stepdaughter and struck her “between 10 and 20 times” near her neck with a rolling pin. Barros and his wife waited to seek medical attention for the 8-year-old, prosecutors said, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Cledir Barros knew about his wife’s ongoing abuse of his daughter but failed to stop it. When Sayra’s teachers began questioning her parents about her visible injuries, prosecutors said the couple pulled her out of school.
“And despite knowledge of his wife’s abuse, (Cledir Barros) left Sayra with the stepmother to home school her,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Barros will serve eight years of his 10-year sentence and is barred from contacting his other children, prosecutors said.
Bethlehem is about a 50-mile drive northeast from downtown Atlanta.