LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff Photographer
A shrine of votive candelaria covers the porch of the home in the 4700 block of C Street in Feltonville where Charleeni Ferreira lived. Tomorrow would have been her 11th birthday.
Charlenni's death blamed on her dead father
In a statement to police, Margarita Garabito said she beat her 10-year-old stepdaughter, Charleeni Ferreira, because she was depressed and the girl wouldn't listen to her, according to law enforcement sources.
In court yesterday, Garabito's attorney said she questioned the validity of any statement her client made to police, and cast blame instead on Charleeni's father, who hanged himself in his jail cell Sunday morning.
The court-appointed attorney, Barbara A. McDermott, said Domingo Ferreira's suicide could be interpreted as "an admission of guilt."
Both parents were charged last week with Charleeni's death.
Domingo Ferreira, 53, did not give a statement to police. Sources said he was remorseless and even fell asleep in the interview room.
While it's unclear if he ever beat his daughter, he did nothing to stop the abuse from Garabito, Charleeni's chief tormentor, sources said.
"She was the mastermind," one law enforcement source said. "She ruled that house."
Domingo Ferreira also had visited Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, for a month this fall, and did not return until three days before his daughter's death on Oct. 21, according to sources and the family's landlord, Luis Viera, who is a Philadelphia firefighter.
Arrangements are being made to return Charleeni's body and her father's ashes to the Dominican Republic.
McDermott said she had not seen any of the evidence against Garabito, "but I question if the statement was given in a language other than Spanish." She said Garabito, 43, speaks very limited English.
Garabito's statement was taken through two Spanish interpreters, police said.
Charleeni, a fifth grader at Feltonville Intermediate, was suffering from a number of healed and fresh injuries at the time of her death, including a fractured hip and a seven-inch gash on her head that had been stuffed with gauze and covered with a hair weave.
She died from an infection caused by untreated broken ribs. The infection filled her lungs with fluid and collapsed them, police said.
Charleeni also had injuries indicating that she had been sexually abused. No sexual-assault charges have been filed as police await the results of DNA tests.
Police officials called the case one of the worst instances of child abuse they had seen.
The bodies of Charleeni and her father have been claimed by Domingo Ferreira's 26-year-old daughter, who lives in Vineland. She could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Services for Charleeni and her father are being handled by the Guckin Funeral Mansion in Philadelphia. A representative of the funeral home said Charleeni's body was being sent to the Dominican Republic, where her ailing mother planned to bury her.
Domingo Ferreira told police that Charleeni's mother was dying of cancer.
Ferreira is to be cremated, and services are to be private. His remains will later be transported to the Dominican Republic.
Ferreira's older daughter asked not to be contacted by the media, according to the funeral home.
