Man Accused of Killing Daughter Says Girl, 10, Poisoned Him

May 27, 2011— -- A Florida father accused of murdering his little girl and burning her twin brother with chemicals told police his 10-year-old daughter tried to poison him by slipping baby oil into his soda, according to court documents.

Jorge Barahona told police the girl died at home, but did not say how, according to court documents released by the state and obtained by the Associated Press. He also told investigators that he feared fourth grader Nubia was trying to feed him rat poison.

Barahona and Nubia's twin brother Victor were found parked on the side of I-95 near West Palm Beach on Feb. 14, the boy covered in toxic chemical burns and overcome by fumes. Hours later police discovered Nubia's naked body stuffed in a garbage bag in the truck's flatbed, drenched in the same caustic chemical.

The investigation that followed the twins' discovery revealed that Florida's Department of Children and Families had recorded several cases of abuse in the Barahona home. DCF received a call reporting the twins' alleged abuse in the week Nubia died, but did not interview the children or remove them from the home.

In the wake of the investigation, considered one of the worst abuse cases in the state's history, several DCF employees were fired.

Included in the newly released documents is a 2006 letter Barahona wrote confessing to a prescription pill addiction. The letter, he said, was intended to clear his wife of any suspected wrongdoing if he was found dead and an autopsy revealed many different drugs in his body.

In the letter he said he regularly took "all this [sic] pills plus the Benadryl in one day, every day Sunday to Sunday," according to the AP.

Court documents released at the time of Barahona's arraignment in March described a house of horrors in which the children were tied up, starved and beaten regularly.

"On Feb. 11, 2011 in the presence of Victor, Jorge Barahona removed Nubia [from the bathtub] while her feet and hands were still bound and took her to [the couple's] bedroom. Co-defendant [Jorge Barahona] reportedly punched and beat Nubia about her body while she screamed and cried until she was dead," according to the documents.

Police said the children were "repeatedly hit, punched, beaten with multiple objects about their bodies and bound and left for days on end, locked inside the only bathroom in the family home..."

James Loftus, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, called the case "depressing [and] sickening" when he spoke about it in March. He described the ordeal suffered by Nubia and her twin brother Victor as "very organized abuse."

"I don't know how people justify this in their minds… this is subhuman," Loftus told said today. At one point, Loftus marveled at the allegation that Nubia and Victor were "locked in a bathroom days on end with no light."

Following the Barahona's arrest, two other children Jennifer, 7, and George, 11, were removed from the Barahona's home and placed in protective custody.

A DCF report from 2007 reported that Nubia was malnourished, "very thin and jittery." The girl, who had male and female sex parts, suffered from several medical problems and a nurse said the Barahona failed to take the girl to necessary doctors' appointments.

Both Barahonas have pled not guilty to the charges. Lawyers for the couple tried to seal the documents released Thursday, arguing the evidence would taint a prospective jury pool. The state attorney general in West Palm Beach, where Barahona's truck was found chose to release the documents.