Father, stepmother indicted for beating 8-year-old to death with wooden rolling pin
Cledir Barros (left) and Natiela Barros are both being held in the Gwinnett County jail without bond, charged in the killing of 8-year-old Sayra Barros. (FOX 5)
BETHLEHEM, Ga. - A grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Gwinnett County man and his wife on charges related to the beating death of the man's 8-year-old daughter. The couple faces eight counts between them.
Natiela Barros, 34, was indicted on malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, and cruelty to children in the first degree.
According to her arrest warrant, Natiela beat her 8-year-old stepdaughter, Sayra Barros, to death in multiple areas, including the "top back of her neck" "with a wooden rolling pin 10 to 20 times, refusing to get her medical care afterwards." During her first appearance in February, Natiela told the judge she is a stay-at-home mom.
The FOX 5 I-Team uncovered DFCS records which shed more light on what happened Jan. 30, saying the beating "started this morning because (Sayra) wasn’t eating correctly, which was the start of spanking."
The records indicate that Sayra didn’t die immediately. After Sayra mentioned feeling unwell, the stepmother laid her across a bed in their home on Vine Springs Trace in Bethlehem. When the girl started to turn white, the stepmom called her husband, 37-year-old Cledir Mendes Barros, who "instructed her to pray, and everything would be OK," a case narrative says.
Cledir was charged with murder in the second degree "by not calling 911 for medical intervention." He also was charged with two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree for "cruel and excessive physical and mental pain by calling the child a demon and withdrawing the child from school to be home-schooled by Natiela Barros, knowing Natiela Barros had beaten the child."
The FOX 5 I-Team has been following the investigation into the Division of Family and Children Services prior to the young girl’s death.