Chilling testimony from a surviving child reveals how a woman allegedly abused the three siblings. NBC6’s Chernéy Amhara reports.
A trial is underway for a Miami-Dade nurse charged in the death of her 7-year-old adoptive daughter who died back in 2018.
Opening statements and testimony began Thursday in the trial of 56-year-old Gina Emmanuel, who's also accused of aggravated child abuse involving her two other adopted children.
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WATCH HEREProsecutors said the three sisters were fostered by Emmanuel in 2014 and then adopted by her in 2017, but were malnourished, beaten and punished.
One of the sisters, Samaya, was found unresponsive at their home and died on Nov. 3, 2018.
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Detectives said they found suspicious injuries on the bodies of all three girls.
"The defendant would make them stand on one leg for hours. You will hear how the defendant taped Samaya to a chair until her body could no longer stand," a prosecutor said during opening statements.
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Defense attorneys said there is no credible evidence Emmanuel abused Samaya.
"When the children didn't do their school work, didn't do their homework or didn't do their chores, yes, there was discipline. There was discipline in the home and yes, there was some punishment but it was reasonable corporal punishment that is permitted by law, not child abuse," a defense attorney said.
A caretaker for Emmanuel’s biological son with special needs told jurors she witnessed the adoptive mother hit the 7-year-old with a belt and said she left the fridge closed with a lock.
That woman was at the home the day the girl died.
"She was lying down but it was like she was having a seizure," the woman said.
Woman said she called Emmanuel advising her daughter was in very bad health, but the mother didn't come until hours later.
