Marainna Torres has been charged.

[Unamused Cat]

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (AP) - Court records show prosecutors have filed a capital murder charge against 17-year-old Marainna Torres in the death of her 2-year-old adopted sister, Enna Isabel Barreto.

Officials said Torres had not yet been arrested Friday.

Union County Justice Court Clerk Larissa Edwards told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that a May 30 document showing the capital murder charge is in the court's records.

Enna died May 19 in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital from head trauma. Her family said the girl, adopted from Guatemala, had fallen from a shopping cart.

Torres is the daughter of Enna's adoptive mother, Janet Lee Killough Barreto.

Janet Barreto and her husband, Ramon Barreto, were charged with child endangerment after the toddler died.

http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=8444568

 

[Whisper]

UPDATE: Torres sentenced to little more than three years in prison for child’s death
OXFORD – Nineteen-year-old Marainna Torres was sentenced today to 20 years in prison, with 15 years suspended on good conduct, leaving 5 years to serve and credit for time served in the death of her 2-year-old adoptive sister.
It means she is sentenced to a little more than three years in prison.
Circuit Judge Andrew Howorth pronounced his decision during the 1 p.m. hearing in the Lafayette County Courthouse.
The child, Ena Barreto, died May 19, 2008, in a Memphis hospital from injuries to her head and torso.
On July 2, 2008, Torres admitted she lost control emotionally, struck the child and threw her into a baby bed at their rural Union County home.
She has been held in the Union County Jail for nearly two years, awaiting the trial of her stepfather and mother, Ramon and Janet Lee Killough Barreto.
She was expected to be a key prosecution witness.
But the Barretos disappeared nearly a year ago as they faced 10 criminal counts – six on child endangerment, three on felony child abuse and one of manslaughter by culpable negligence.
A Union County grand jury accused them of forcing Torres to care for their seven adopted children, most under the age of 3, without proper training or support, which contributed to her fatally injuring one of them.
Pontotoc attorney Tim Tucker represented Torres, who spent her 18th and 19th birthdays in jail.
District Attorney Ben Creekmore represented the state and made the sentence recommendation to Howorth.
Torres was 17 when Ena died and 2008 reports say she was practically a servant in her County Road 87 home, forced to take care of the many young children the Barretos adopted from Guatemala.
Authorities continue to search for the Barretos, who were scheduled for trial in March 2009.
Out on $450,000 bond each, they apparently left the county before Janet Barreto was to be arraigned on another charge – witness tampering – after she allegedly called Torres in jail and demanded she recant or lie about how the child died.
They are believed to be in Mexico, where Ramon has family.

http://nems360.com/pages/full_story...339640&instance=secondary_stories_left_column

Marainna Torres leaves the stand after answering questions during her sentence hearing at the Lafayette County Courthouse in Oxford on Thursday​

 

[Valasca]

Yeah, um... you know how i feel about making fun of people, but HOW did this woman stay so fat in prison? Not like they get bon-bons all the time.

 

[karebu72]

Yeah, um... you know how i feel about making fun of people, but HOW did this woman stay so fat in prison? Not like they get bon-bons all the time.

You always gain weight in jail or prison...the food that is served is cheap and full of carbs and fat. Most inmates are stuck in 9 x 5 ft cell for 23 out of 24 hours...not much room to work off the calories.

 

[Valasca]

You always gain weight in jail or prison...the food that is served is cheap and full of carbs and fat. Most inmates are stuck in 9 x 5 ft cell for 23 out of 24 hours...not much room to work off the calories.

First of all, good call. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Second, WAY TO RESPOND TO A TWO YEAR OLD POST!

 

[Dakota]

First of all, good call. I hadn't thought of it that way.
Second, WAY TO RESPOND TO A TWO YEAR OLD POST!

Some people get caught up in the stories, comments, thought and don't pay attention to dates. After all, all kinds of "Similar Threads" get linked at the bottom of a thread and it's easy to wander into old spaces.

WAY TO MAKE AN INFREQUENT POSTER FEEL WELCOME!

 

[Valasca]

WAY TO MAKE AN INFREQUENT POSTER FEEL WELCOME!

SINCE WHEN HAVE I EVER CARED?
All i'm saying is, I don't even recall making that statement.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Mid-South man will spend 18 years in prison for the death of a 2-year-old, and the abuse of other adopted children.

Prosecutors say Ramon Barreto pleaded guilty, and was given a 60 year sentence, which includes time on probation.

Ramon had been on the run with his wife Janet for years before being captured in Oregon.

Mid-South man sentenced for death of 2-year-old

A Mid-South man will spend 18 years in prison for the death of a 2-year-old, and the abuse of other adopted children

www.wmcactionnews5.com

Janet Barreto, woman accused of leaving her severely injured 2-year-old adopted daughter at a hospital and keeping other adopted children in putrid conditions has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Barreto and her husband left 2-year-old Ena Barreto at a northern Mississippi hospital in 2008, saying she had fallen from a shopping cart. The girl died at a children's hospital in Memphis, Tennessee

WATCH: Pod of orcas visits whale watching tour off California coast

Princess Monterey Whale Watching reports seeing this pod of killer whales three times in the past week.

www.wapt.com

Janet and Ramon Barreto were two of America's most wanted fugitives. The couple was on the run for five years after they were charged with the death of one of their adopted daughters.

Marainna Torres, Janet Barreto's biological daughter, served time for her parents' crime. Torres broke down in tears when asked about the death of her 2-year-old adopted sister, Ena.

"I'm sorry. She didn't deserve anything like that," said Torres. "I wish that she could have the life that the other children have."

Torres was 14 years old when her mother and stepfather began purchasing children from a Guatemalan adoption agency.

"I thought everything was going to be alright, and then she kept going on and adopting one after the other, and things started getting worse," Torres recalled.

Janet and Ramon Barreto adopted eight children overall. Investigators say the couple abused and tortured the kids inside a trailer in Union County, Mississippi.

One child was kept in a dog crate. Babies slept on plywood.

"There was times that she tied them up, duct taped where they couldn't move," said Torres. "He gave them hot sauce, I guess that was his way of punishment."

Torres recalled the abuse of one brother, whom her parents nearly drowned.

"He would take him outside and he would punish him by dunking him in water and holding him under," said Torres

By the time she was 17, Torres dropped out of high school and was in charge of her siblings.

She says the day her sister died, the toddler had been crying for hours.

"I was told to go back there and make her be quiet," Torres said. "I spanked her and then I threw her in her bed and she hit her head. Up to that point, they had already said that she had already had trauma, so it just made it worse."

Ena died at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.


Authorities suspected long-term abuse of the child and removed the other children from the Barretos' home. They then charged Torres, and her parents, with manslaughter.

"They actually told me that I was the flight risk and it actually turned out to be the other way around," said Torres.

Once she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and began serving time behind bars, Torres' parents took off.

Janet and Ramon Barreto hid from authorities for five years until U.S. Marshals captured the couple in Oregon last summer and brought them back to Mississippi.

"For a long time, I always thought that they would find her [Janet] because they were a lot smarter than she was because of them being who they were and their training and all that, and she beat them every time, except for this last time," said Torres.

Janet Barreto pleaded guilty to manslaughter of a child, three counts of child abuse, and six counts of child neglect. She died in prison just three months into her 25 year sentence.

"It hurts," confessed Torres. "Regardless of the things she's done to me or my brothers and sisters, it's still hard because she's the one who gave birth to me and I can't never change who my mother is."

Janet Barreto never told her biological daughter why she adopted so many children.

"I know that's the biggest question that people keep asking, but I've never got the answer to it," said Torres.

It's now up to Ramon Barreto to reveal a motive for the madness that destroyed so many young lives.

As for Marainna Torres, she's working to recover from the horrors she's seen and the guilt she feels about her involvement in her little sister's death.

Torres said, "I don't think I'll ever have complete peace with what happened, but I'm working on it day by day."

Daughter of Mississippi 'child collectors' breaks silence

Marainna Torres, Janet Barreto's biological daughter, served time for her parents' crime. Torres broke down in tears when asked about the death of her 2-year-old adopted sister, Ena.

www.wmcactionnews5.com