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Trial To Begin In Murder Case That Exposed Gaps In Maine's Child Protection System

Patty Wight
/
Maine Public File
Sharon Carrillo, right, with one of her attorneys, Chris MacLean, in court 2018.

The trial of Sharon Carrillo begins Friday in Waldo County Superior Court. Carrillo is charged with depraved indifference murder for the abuse death of her 10-year old daughter Marissa Kennedy in February 2018.

Carrillo's husband, Julio Carrillo, pleaded guilty to Kennedy's murder this summer.

Sharon Carrillo's attorneys say that she was also a victim of abuse by her husband, who was Kennedy's stepfather. They cited that alleged abuse earlier this year in a motion to suppress incriminating statements Carrillo made to police in the aftermath of her daughter's death. That motion was denied by Justice Robert Murray.

Murray also decided this week that Carrillo is competent to stand trial, even though she's cognitively impaired.

In July, 52-year old Julio Carrillo was sentenced to 55 years in prison for Kennedy's death in 2018, which came shortly after another child abuse death, prompting An overhaul of Maine's child welfare system.