BELFAST — Day five of the trial against Sharon Carrillo began with jurors watching the interview Maine State Police Detective Jason Andrews. The interview was conducted Feb. 26, the day after 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy died. The cause of Marissa’s death, as determined by the medical examiner, was battered child syndrome. 

Sharon Carrillo is on trial for depraved indifference murder in the prolonged beating death of Marissa, who along with then-husband Julio Carrillo, admitted horrific abuse during interviews held the day of and the day following Marissa’s death. Some of the abuse included being beaten with a belt, fist, being punched in the stomach, and kneeling on the hard kitchen tile while her hands were over her head. Julio Carrillo pleaded guilty to his charge of depraved indifference murder in July and was sentenced to 55 years in prison. 

Over the course of the three-hour Feb. 26 interview, which was videotaped and played for jurors, Detective Andrews repeatedly tried to find a why behind the tragic death of Sharon Carillo’s daughter, who was reportedly beaten multiple times per day, every day, for months before she ultimately died from her many injuries. 

For much of the interview, every time Andrews asked why it happened, Sharon Carrillo told him that it was because her stepmother was sending Julio text messages telling him and Sharon how to discipline Marissa, including kneeling on the floor with her arms raised and hitting her with a belt. Sharon told Andrews that she never actually saw any of the text messages, but had been told by Julio when they arrived and what they said.

It was revealed in court documents prior to the start of the trial that the texts Sharon claimed were sent by her stepmother were never actually sent.

Toward the end of the interview, Sharon admitted that she and Julio made up the story about the texts.

When asked whose idea it was to “punish” the 10-year-old girl, Sharon Carrillo said that it was Julio. Andrews then asked her: “What happened to the 50/50 thing? Why come up with the texting story?”

Sharon Carrillo then admitted in the interview that she and Julio came up with the idea of blaming her stepmother’s texts to “cover ourselves.” 

Though initially denying a large portion of the abuse, Sharon eventually conceded in the Feb. 24 interview that she also took part in the abuse, including punching Marissa in the stomach, hitting her in the face and sides, and standing on the backs of Marissa’s calves when she was kneeling on the floor. 

The wound on Marissa’s knees and the tops of her feet were severe enough traumatize her bones. Sharon also admitted that they chose to make Marissa kneel on the tile because they thought that there would eventually be blood and they didn’t want it to get on the carpet. 

Jurors learned from the interview that Marissa suspected she was dying, saying to Sharon, “I think I’m dying,” while seated in one of the camp chairs. Marissa said this while sitting in one of the camp chairs before she stopped speaking altogether, according to Sharon’s recorded interview. 

“We should have stopped. I should have called 911 then and taken her to the hospital no matter what happened,” Sharon said between sobs. “I should have listened to her because it was her body.”

Instead, Marissa was beaten once more before her bruised and battered body gave out altogether. 

During the interview, when Andrews asked yet again, why this happened [to Marissa], Sharon brought up the note Marissa had written while the family still lived in New York. 

“Cause of the lies and everything and when I found out what she wrote about me,” Sharon said. 

Sharon explained that Marissa had written in the notes that she hated Sharon and wanted to live with Sharon’s stepmother, which Sharon said was because Marissa would get everything she’d need or want. 

The interview concludes with Sharon’s arrest.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com