Gina Emmanuel appearing successful tribunal during her April 2025 execution proceedings successful Miami, Florida (WTVJ).
A 56-year-old erstwhile registered caregiver and foster parent successful South Florida volition walk the remainder of her days down bars for killing her 7-year-old adopted daughter, aft beating, starving, and yet torturing the young miss to decease portion astir forcing the victim’s siblings to endure the aforesaid fate.
A assemblage successful Miami-Dade County connected Tuesday recovered Gina Emmanuel blameworthy connected 1 number of first-degree premeditated execution successful the horrific 2018 slaying of young Samaya Emmanuel, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Emmanuel was besides recovered blameworthy connected 2 counts of aggravated kid maltreatment implicit the attraction of Samaya’s siblings, who were 5 and 12 years aged astatine the clip of Samaya’s death. All 3 children were initially being fostered by Emmanuel earlier she formally adopted them.
“The blameworthy verdict successful Gina Emmanuel’s first-degree execution and kid maltreatment proceedings brought to the airy of time the horrors 7-year-old Samaya truthful tragically suffered earlier her death,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said successful a statement pursuing the verdict. “No 1 could ever ideate that a trained caregiver would beat, torture, and starve Samaya and her 2 adopted sisters arsenic a means of instilling the defendant’s imaginativeness of discipline. The assemblage afloat understood that she yet ignored the suffering of young Samaya which led to this child’s death.”
The tortures Emmanuel inflicted upon her children included forcing them to devour quality feces, intentionally burning them connected the stove, chaining them successful chairs, physically abusing them, and withholding nutrient and water, among different forms of torture, Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ reported.
According to the report, Emmanuel’s now-18-year-old adopted girl provided affectional grounds astir the horrors she and her sisters endured astatine the hands of their foster parent during the three-day proceedings that ended Monday evening.
“She would concatenation us, she would person america laic down, she would concatenation america and fastener america until she got back,” the girl reportedly told jurors.
“One should respect the courageousness it took for Samaya’s sister, 12-years-old astatine the clip of the abuse, to travel guardant and attest successful court, earlier judges, lawyers, jurors, and others successful bid for the information to beryllium told,” Rundle said. “The prosecution squad of Assistant State Attorneys Cristina Diamond and Kristen Rodriguez merit congratulations for performing a superb occupation of bringing each the distressing grounds and grounds to the attraction of the tribunal and the jury.”
During the trial, prosecutors said that Emmanuel was fixated connected being successful power of each facet of her daughters’ lives and enforced her rules done heinous abuse, Miami ABC affiliate WPLG reported.
“You volition larn done this proceedings astir the defendant’s control,” prosecutors reportedly said during opening statements. “You’ll perceive she kept her refrigerator chained. These 3 girls were forced to urinate and defecate successful a bucket. They were malnourished, whipped and didn’t spot a pediatrician. What other was going to hap arsenic a effect of the choices she made?”
Emmanuel’s defence lawyer reportedly claimed that the registered caregiver engaged successful “reasonable corporal punishment” that did not magnitude to kid abuse, asserting that Samaya’s decease was mostly attributable to untreated diabetes.
“Should she person taken the kid to the hospital? Yes, absolutely, but it wasn’t murder. It was not kid abuse,” her lawyer reportedly told jurors.
Emmanuel is scheduled to look successful tribunal again for her sentencing proceeding connected April 30. She faces a mandatory condemnation of beingness successful a authorities correctional installation without the accidental of parole.