When he and his twin sister were bound by the wrists and ankles in the bathtub of their West Miami-Dade house, Victor Barahona’s adopted father doused them with ice water or bleach.
A few times, Jorge Barahona wrapped a plastic bag around the 10-year-old boy’s head, then choked him until he nearly passed out.
Another time, the elder Barahona glued the boy’s eyes shut and once made him eat a cockroach.
At mealtimes, Victor and his twin sister Nubia could eat only bread and milk, maybe once a week in the bathtub, while the other children in the home dined on shredded beef, rice and beans.
Any leftovers from the “good food” would go to the family’s dog.
These are the memories of torture that Victor Barahona relayed to his caretaker in the months following the February 2011 arrest of his adopted parents, Jorge and Carmen Barahona.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty against Jorge and Carmen Barahona, charged with murdering Nubia, 10, and torturing her twin brother. Prosecutors say the couple beat, starved and tortured the twins for months inside their West Miami-Dade home.
Nubia’s decomposing body, soaked in chemicals, was discovered on Valentine’s Day 2011 in the back of Jorge Barahona’s pickup truck alongside Interstate 95 in West Palm Beach on Valentine’s Day. Doused in chemicals, Victor was alive but badly injured.
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