Child's mother files wrongful death suit
The Brunswick News
The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in State Court in Glynn County against the owner of the trailer park where the child lived.
LaTrina Keith filed the suit Wednesday, just over a year after her son, Christopher Michael Barrios Jr., was allegedly kidnapped, molested and strangled in a trailer at Canal Road Mobile Home Park in north Glynn.
She is being represented by attorney William Pinson Jr., of the Savannah law firm Savage, Turner, Pinson & Karsman.
Christopher disappeared March 8, 2007. His body was found in a plastic trash bag on the side of a road just north of the trailer park following a weeklong search by police and volunteers March 15.
A family of three accused in his murder – David Edenfield, his wife, Peggy and the couple's 30-year-old son, George – also lived in the trailer park.
In the lawsuit, Keith claims that the trailer park owner, Sharon O'Quinn of Brunswick, knew that it was a dangerous place for children because she "knowingly" rented the trailer lots to convicted child molesters, including George Edenfield, who was convicted of child molestation June 5, 1997.
Christopher Barrios lived with his father, Michael Barrios, and his father's girlfriend, Paula Anderson, in a mobile home at 151 Horseshoe Lane in the mobile home park.
His grandmother, Sue Rodriguez, also lived in a mobile home in the trailer park, at 120 Horseshoe Lane.
Rodriguez would baby-sit Christopher after school in the afternoons. He would walk across the trailer park from her mobile home to his father's trailer at nightfall.
The Edenfields lived in a mobile home at 121 Horseshoe Lane, between his father and grandmother's mobile homes.
Keith also claims in the suit that O'Quinn had received numerous complaints about George Edenfield from other residents in the trailer park and that she should have known that he posed a danger to Christopher, a kindergartner at C.B. Greer Elementary School.
The suit alleges that O'Quinn received rent money from convicted sex offenders but did nothing to ensure that the children living in Canal Road Trailer Park were out of harm's way.
O'Quinn could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Keith is also suing a caseworker at the Georgia Department of Children and Family Services – identified only as Jane Doe in the suit – for acting in a "gross and negligent manner."
She alleges that the social worker failed to protect Christopher by placing him in the custody of his father, Christopher Barrios Sr., a convicted sex offender.
Christopher barrios Sr. was convicted of statutory rape on April 24, 1997.
Keith has requested a trial by jury and a judgment against O'Quinn and the caseworker for the "full value of the life of Christopher Barrios," as well as funeral costs.
No dollar amount is listed in the suit.
[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Thu, Mar 13, 2008[/FONT]
By EMILY STRANGER The Brunswick News
The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in State Court in Glynn County against the owner of the trailer park where the child lived.
LaTrina Keith filed the suit Wednesday, just over a year after her son, Christopher Michael Barrios Jr., was allegedly kidnapped, molested and strangled in a trailer at Canal Road Mobile Home Park in north Glynn.
She is being represented by attorney William Pinson Jr., of the Savannah law firm Savage, Turner, Pinson & Karsman.
Christopher disappeared March 8, 2007. His body was found in a plastic trash bag on the side of a road just north of the trailer park following a weeklong search by police and volunteers March 15.
A family of three accused in his murder – David Edenfield, his wife, Peggy and the couple's 30-year-old son, George – also lived in the trailer park.
In the lawsuit, Keith claims that the trailer park owner, Sharon O'Quinn of Brunswick, knew that it was a dangerous place for children because she "knowingly" rented the trailer lots to convicted child molesters, including George Edenfield, who was convicted of child molestation June 5, 1997.
Christopher Barrios lived with his father, Michael Barrios, and his father's girlfriend, Paula Anderson, in a mobile home at 151 Horseshoe Lane in the mobile home park.
His grandmother, Sue Rodriguez, also lived in a mobile home in the trailer park, at 120 Horseshoe Lane. Rodriguez would baby-sit Christopher after school in the afternoons. He would walk across the trailer park from her mobile home to his father's trailer at nightfall.
The Edenfields lived in a mobile home at 121 Horseshoe Lane, between his father and grandmother's mobile homes.
Keith also claims in the suit that O'Quinn had received numerous complaints about George Edenfield from other residents in the trailer park and that she should have known that he posed a danger to Christopher, a kindergartner at C.B. Greer Elementary School.
The suit alleges that O'Quinn received rent money from convicted sex offenders but did nothing to ensure that the children living in Canal Road Trailer Park were out of harm's way.
O'Quinn could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Keith is also suing a caseworker at the Georgia Department of Children and Family Services – identified only as Jane Doe in the suit – for acting in a "gross and negligent manner."
She alleges that the social worker failed to protect Christopher by placing him in the custody of his father, Christopher Barrios Sr., a convicted sex offender.
Christopher barrios Sr. was convicted of statutory rape on April 24, 1997.
Keith has requested a trial by jury and a judgment against O'Quinn and the caseworker for the "full value of the life of Christopher Barrios," as well as funeral costs.
No dollar amount is listed in the suit.
