MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 56-year-old woman who tortured her adoptive children until one of them died was impassive during her sentencing hearing on Wednesday in Miami-Dade County court.
Gina Emmanuel also chose not to express remorse. The state trusted her with the safety of Samaya, Samariah, Ayanna, and Tanaya in 2014 and she adopted them in 2017.
During the trial, a jury learned that 7-year-old Samaya suffered burns, wounds, and whip-like marks when she died in 2018 after a respiratory infection devolved into pneumonia and sepsis.
“I wish you well in hell,” Ayanna Gordon, now 18, told Emmanuel at the sentencing hearing.
Samaya’s sister Samariah Gordon was also in the courtroom when Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Cristina Miranda sentenced Emmanuel to life in prison for Samaya’s murder.
Samaya’s siblings told investigators and jurors how Emmanuel starved them, forced them to eat feces, burned their hands on the stove, and used tape and chains to retrain them, records show.
Detectives arrested Emmanuel, then a registered nurse, in 2019 after an investigation showed that Samaya had died as a result of her horrific neglect and abuse, according to prosecutors.
On April 15, after hearing the survivors’ testimony, a jury found Emmanuel guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released a statement after the conviction praising the courage Samaya’s sister, then 12 years old, had to tell the truth.
“No one could ever imagine that a trained nurse would beat, torture, and starve Samaya and her 2 adopted sisters,” Fernandez Rundle said in the April 16 statement.
Robert Gordon, Samaya’s visually impaired grandfather, said he was angry when he learned that Emmanuel was not apologizing to her victims during the hearing.
“I wish I could have been involved sooner,” the grandfather said his voice breaking. He also faced Emmanuel and said, “I think about inflicting pain on you every day.”
For the two child abuse convictions, Miranda also sentenced Emmanuel to two 30-year prison terms to be served concurrently. Her defense plans to appeal the case.
