A 10-year-old girl who died in Stockton Springs on Sunday was beaten and abused for months by the two adults now charged with her murder, according to court records.
Since October, Marissa Kennedy was beaten multiple times each day by her mother, Sharon Carrillo, 33, and Julio Carrillo, 51, the girl’s stepfather, according to a police affidavit filed in Belfast District Court on Monday. Sometimes the parents would lock Marissa in a darkened closet for extended periods. The girl screamed the whole time she was being punished, Sharon Carrillo said, according to the filing.
The couple told police that they staged a scene inside their Stockton Springs condominium to make it appear as if Marissa’s death was the result of an accident, according to the documents.
The Carrillos each face one count of depraved indifference murder.
This undated photo of Marissa Kennedy was posted on Twitter by WCSH reporter Samantha York, who said it was obtained from a friend of the Carrillos.
They told police that they punished Marissa by forcing her to kneel on a tile floor and hold her hands above her head while they whipped her between 10 and 15 times with a leather belt or hit her with their hands.
The parents said they chose the tile of the kitchen floor, rather than a carpeted or wooden surface, so it would hurt more.
In one instance, Julio Carrillo broke a metal mop handle across Marissa’s ribs, the couple told police.
The beatings continued from about October until Thursday or Friday, when Marissa could no longer walk or speak without slurring her words, police said.
Julio Carrillo told investigators that although he stopped beating Marissa at this time, he believed that his wife inflicted at least one more punishment because she believed the girl was faking her injuries.
Julio Carrillo told police that Marissa was unresponsive on Saturday.
He and his wife discussed how they would stage the scene, and planned to use the basement boiler room as the location. Julio Carrillo carried the girl’s body into the basement room and laid her on the concrete floor, and knocked over two chairs and a step stool in an effort to stage the scene.
After two or three hours, Julio Carrillo told police he went back to the boiler room and carried Marissa up into the home. Sharon Carrillo, who had stayed upstairs with their two other children living in the home, tried to clean the girl’s body. Julio Carrillo then called 911.
“Julio Carrillo explained that he knew Marissa Kennedy was badly injured and in need of medical help but chose not to get her help because he figured Sharon Carillo would lie about how she was hurting Marissa Kennedy and he would be the only one left to blame because he would be honest about what he was doing to her,” the affidavit says.
Sharon Carrillo at first denied any involvement in the child’s injuries, but then told detectives of how she and her husband took turns beating the girl.
The office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy and determined that Marissa Kennedy died of battered child syndrome, and had recently suffered a subdural hematoma, a lacerated liver and showed signs of multiple old injuries that were caused by acute and chronic abuse.
Police noted extensive bruising across her head, abdomen and legs, and noted multiple open drying wounds to her knees, according to the affidavit.
The family had been living in Bangor before moving last fall to the Stockton Springs condominium, which is owned by Sharon Carrillo’s parents, state police said.
The Carrillos’ two other children – ages 1 and 2 – were taken into custody by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, state police spokesman Steve McCausland said.
A spokeswoman for DHHS declined to say whether the couple had previous contact with child protective services, citing confidentiality laws that protect such information from public disclosure. Neither the husband nor the wife has a criminal record in Maine.
Neither of the other children, a boy and a girl, showed signs of physical abuse, McCausland said. It was not clear why the parents singled out Marissa or what rationale they gave for punishing her so severely.
She was last enrolled in the local elementary school in neighboring Searsport in November, McCausland said. He did not know why she was not in school in the period before her death.
The Carrillos had drawn attention from police in the past for fighting with each other. Officers from the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, the Maine State Police and Bangor Police had responded to multiple domestic violence calls involving the couple.
A neighbor at the condominium complex told officers that on Saturday the Carrillos began arguing at 8 a.m., including outside near their garage. They did not stop until 4 p.m. that day, the neighbor said.
The affidavit contained no information about the couple’s background or personal history, and detectives will continue to run down information in the coming days.
“We have an incredible amount of additional work to do,” McCausland said. “Some of the obvious questions we have answers to, some we don’t.”
Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 or at:
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