A former registered nurse and foster mother, aged 56, from South Florida has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of her 7-year-old adopted daughter. Gina Emmanuel was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder for the 2018 death of Samaya Emmanuel, as well as two counts of aggravated child abuse related to the treatment of Samaya’s siblings, aged 5 and 12 at the time of the incident.
The Miami-Dade County jury delivered the guilty verdict on Tuesday, following a review of the case records by Law&Crime. Emmanuel had initially fostered all three children before formally adopting them. The case has shed light on the unimaginable suffering endured by the children under Emmanuel’s care.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle expressed her shock and dismay following the verdict. She stated that it was unimaginable that a trained nurse could inflict such horrific abuse on her adopted children under the guise of discipline. Rundle praised the jury for recognizing Emmanuel’s neglect and abuse, which ultimately led to Samaya’s death.
The abuse inflicted by Emmanuel on her children was severe and included forcing them to consume human feces, intentionally burning them on a stove, chaining them to chairs, physical abuse, and withholding food and water, among other forms of torture. This information was reported by Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ.
Emmanuel’s eldest adopted daughter, now 18, provided a heart-wrenching testimony during the three-day trial that concluded on Monday evening. She detailed the horrifying abuse she and her sisters endured at the hands of their foster mother.
Rundle commended the bravery of Samaya’s sister, who was only 12 at the time of the abuse, for testifying in court. She also praised the prosecution team of Assistant State Attorneys Cristina Diamond and Kristen Rodriguez for their excellent work in presenting the distressing evidence and testimony to the court and the jury.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Emmanuel was obsessed with controlling every aspect of her daughters’ lives, enforcing her rules through horrific abuse. Emmanuel’s defense attorney, however, claimed that the registered nurse engaged in “reasonable corporal punishment” and attributed Samaya’s death primarily to untreated diabetes.
Emmanuel is set to appear in court again for her sentencing hearing on April 30. She faces a mandatory sentence of life in a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole.