Judge wants Barahona tried soon in daughter’s killing. Both sides express doubt

Crime admin September 8, 2026 0 Comments

Judge wants Barahona tried soon in daughter’s killing. Both sides express doubt

The judge presiding over the case of Jorge Barahona, charged with the brutal murder of his daughter, said Barahona must be prepared to go to trial — or to reach a plea deal.

“It’s going,” Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson said on Tuesday. “Either that or you all work something out.”

Wolfson said she aims to schedule Barahona’s trial for no later than March. But in court on Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys said that likely will not be possible. Stephan Lopez, one of Barahona’s attorneys, called that timeline “unrealistic.”

The judge pointed out how the case has been lingering in the courthouse for almost 17 years.

Barahona, 59, has been behind bars since March 2011 after being accused of killing 10-year-old Nubia Barahona and torturing her twin brother Victor. He is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and a slew of child-abuse offenses.

READ MORE: 15 years after daughter’s slaying, Jorge Barahona might finally go to trial

He is facing the death penalty, if convicted.

Judge Wolfson also asked the attorneys to suggest “viable dates” for the trial at the next hearing on Monday.

The case has been marked by delays as Barahona, a Westchester electrician, has fired several of the attorneys appointed to represent him. Lopez was appointed to the case in December, and Jimmy Dellafera was appointed in August. Both attorneys said in court they are still sifting through evidence that they were given from Barahona’s previous lawyers. They are also still interviewing witnesses.

Barahona was also found incompetent to stand trial for years. In July 2025, Wolfson found Barahona competent, ruling that Barahona was capable of aiding his attorneys and understands the severity of the penalties should he be found guilty.

Barahona’s ex-wife, Carmen Barahona, 75, was also charged in connection to Nubia’s killing. In 2020, she struck a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to a life sentence in exchange for her testimony. She remains jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

10-year-old girl burned with chemicals

On Feb. 14, 2011, police uncovered Nubia’s badly decomposed body wrapped in plastic and covered with chemicals in the back of Barahona’s pick-up truck on the side of I-95 in West Palm Beach.

Victor, who somehow survived, was in the truck’s cab suffering seizures from chemical burns. Next to Victor in the driver’s seat: Barahona, who also burned himself with chemicals, according to police.

It wasn’t long before a probe into the Barahonas’ home uncovered gruesome acts against their children, police said. Barahona and Carmen beat and tortured the twins, tying them with electrical cord and shocking them in a bathtub with the door locked, investigators said. A state legislator said the couple smeared feces onto the twins’ faces when they were upset with them.

The state’s child-welfare agency was heavily scrutinized for its failures in protecting Nubia and Victor. Victor, who was last known to be living with relatives in Texas, was awarded $3.75 million by Florida state legislators in 2017.