Alleged Mississippi puppy millers charged with felony child abuse & manslaughter

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

NEW ALBANY, Miss.–Attorney Tony Farese of Ashland,
Mississippi, told Patsy R. Brumfield of the Northeast Mississ-ippi
Journal on November 10, 2008 that no plea bargain is imminent on
behalf of alleged puppy millers and accessories to manslaughter Janet
Lee Killough Barreto, 37, and Ramon Barreto, 31. But Farese,
representing the Barretos, “did not deny he was offered a deal” by
Union County assistant district attorney Kelly Luther, Brumfield
said.

The Barretos on August 7, 2008 pleaded not guilty to six
counts each of child endangerment, three counts each of felony child
abuse, and one count each of manslaughter by culpable negligence.
Marainna Torres, Janet Barreto’s 17-year-old biological
daughter from a previous marriage, on July 2, 2008 pleaded guilty
to killing her two-year-old adopted Guatemalan step-sister Enna on
May 18, 2008 by hitting Enna and throwing her into a baby bed.
Torres, who spent a month in a Memphis mental hospital after the
killing, currently awaits sentencing, facing two to 20 years in
prison. She is now “held in an undisclosed jail, believed to be in
northeast Mississippi,” Brumfield wrote.
“In the indictment, the Barretos are accused of three
specific instances of child abuse,” Brumfield reported earlier.
“From September 14, 2000, through February 8, 2006, Adriana
Killough, also known as Adriana Santana Lemar, was caged in a
closet for prolonged periods and forced to eat, sleep, urinate and
defecate in the cage. From November 1, 2007, until May 1, 2008,
Luisa Fernanda Barreto was tied in a baby crib. From November 1,
2007, through May 1, 2008, Juan Fernando Barreto was tied in a
baby crib.”
Added Brumfield, “An official close to the investigation
said Adriana, now 8 years old, was the first child then-Janet
Killough adopted and later gave away because the child suffered from
a brain disorder.” The Barretos, who had one child together, later
adopted six more Guatemalan children in addition to Enna.
They were not charged with animal offenses, but sheriff’s
deputies impounded “more than 180 dogs, 25 cats and several ducks”
from their “mass puppy breeding operation,” reported Emily Le Coz of
the Northeast Mississippi Journal. Tupelo-Lee Humane Society
director Debbie Hood told Le Coz that the Barretos apparently bred
Yorkies, English bulldogs, Shitzus, and pugs, whom they sold at
“various Northeast Mississippi flea markets.”
In Defense of Animals, whose Project Hope sanctuary in
Mississippi was involved in the animal rescue, cited the Barreto
case in promoting the last Saturday before Christmas, December 20,
2008, as a national “Adopt, Don’t Shop! Day,” in protest against
puppy mills.