A prosecutor Thursday detailed a house of terror run by Pedroso in which she allegedly beat her children routinely and relegated her husband to the basement, where he had to ask for permission to come upstairs, shower or use the bathroom.
“This is a very serious case with egregious facts,” John H. Melander Jr., a special prosecutor assigned to the case, told a judge Thursday as he referenced “extremely disturbing” photographs of the children's’ injuries.
“It looks as if they were painted in purple from their shoulders to their knees.” Melander said of Sofia Brito and her 9-year-old brother.
Sofia’s brother, who has been adopted by his uncle, sat in the gallery supported by family as his father pleaded guilty.
Melander said the boy and his sister were beaten regularly for years by Pedroso, who was found hiding in the woods with several thousand dollars and a handwritten journal the day her daughter was found.
Inside the journal, and within thousands of pages of writings found in her home, Pedroso had written about how she beat her children, Melander said, often in stark terms.
The day before Sofia died, Melander said, Pedroso described having “beat the (expletive) out of the kids,” and noted they were "bedridden.”
Melander said that on April 10, Brito frantically called authorities and reported his daughter was not breathing. When police arrived, Melander said, they found the couple's son, who appeared to be badly beaten.
The boy, Melander said, told police his “sister was upstairs, and that she was dead.”
Officers found Sofia unresponsive on the floor with injuries consistent with physical abuse, Melander said. Her death was ruled a homicide by blunt force.
Melander said diary entries, calendar entries and other documents Pedroso authored showed she had been beating her children since 2014.
Melander said Brito told authorities he only spanked the children when warranted, and was not aware how badly they were beaten.
Melander said while evidence indicated Pedroso was the person who inflicted the abuse, Brito’s inaction was inexcusable and criminal.
Melander said one diary entry from Pedroso indicated that Brito had threatened to punch her in the face if she didn’t stop beating the kids. Other than that, he did not detail anything Brito apparently did to stop the abuse.
“This defendant lived in that small home … and listened to his children continually beaten by his wife — their mother — for four years, and did nothing to extricate his children,” Melander said. “Those children were living in terror in their home, where they should have been safe and protected.”
Melander said Brito, in telling police he did not know how badly the children were beaten, explained that he worked during the day as she homeschooled them and lived in the basement when he got home.
Melander said text messages corroborated claims from Brito that his wife required him to ask permission to come upstairs, shower and use the bathroom.
However, he said Brito admitted to hearing his wife yell, and to hearing his children scream from being struck. He also admitted he had witnessed Pedroso strike the kids, and to seeing bruising on his son’s arm, Melander said.
Brito’s lawyer, Jaclyn R. Greenhalgh, told Judge William J. Ritter the man was pleading guilty to accept responsibility for his failure to act.
The plea, she said, was to “let (Sofia) know that he’s sorry for what happened, that he was there to protect her, and he didn’t,” Greenhalgh said, as well as to send the same message to his son.
“Hopefully, some day, on (the boy’s) terms, (they) can have a relationship,” Greenhalgh said. “He would love nothing more than that.”
Brito, shackled hand and foot, looked back at his son multiple times during the hearing, and got emotional after Melander outlined the government’s case.
The boy, his uncle and other family members declined to offer a victim impact statement, though Melander did note that the boy confirmed that his mother was the person who beat him.
Judge Ritter sentenced Brito to eight years in state prison, which is the sentence a different Superior Court judge, Janet Kenton-Walker, had settled upon during prior discussions with the lawyers.
Melander had requested 12 to 14 years in prison, while Greenhalgh had asked for time served.
Brito will receive credit for the 1,340 days he has spent in jail awaiting trial. He will be placed on probation for three years following his release, during which time he cannot have unsupervised contact with children under age 18.
Brito also must stay away from his son and not have contact with him unless supervised or through writing until he reaches age 18.
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