Father Who Butchered 3-Year-Old Girl, Knifed His 12-Year-Old Daughter Faces Life Sentence

Florida prosecutors on Wednesday will be seeking the death penalty against a man charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder after he reportedly killed his 3-year-old child and attempted to kill his 12-year-old daughter on the same night.

Juan Bravo-Torres, a 39-year-old Longwood, Florida resident and father, was arrested two weeks ago after he stabbed and killed his 3-year-old daughter Eva Bravo-Herrera and attempted to kill his 12-year-old daughter by slashing her throat, before she had to play dead in order to avoid being killed by Bravo-Torres, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The prosecutors, led by State Attorney Phil Archer, said that the felonies committed by Bravo-Torres were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel” and that they were committed “in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner without any moral or legal justification,” the New York Post reported.

In a harrowing story, the 12-year-old girl said in a statement to the local authorities that her dad had grabbed her throat and slashed it when she thought that he was doing so to reach for her necklace. She found her 3-year-old sister dead in the hallway and attempted to fight her father when he came back with another knife.

“The victim stated her dad came at her with a knife but that she fought him back and eventually acted as if she was dead in hopes he would stop attacking her,” she said.

She played dead to keep her father from actually killing her; after this, she and her dead sister were dragged to the bathroom before Bravo-Torres cut his own wrists and throat to kill himself. After her father blacked out, she took the knife and ran to a nearby McDonald’s where her mother works to inform her of the incident.

“The amount of courage this 12-year-old young lady had is just remarkable,” Police Sgt. Derek Chenoweth said. “Grown adults may not have been able to come to that decision. And this 12-year-old did that, and she is alive today because of the choices that she made.”

The father’s motivation for the killing remains unclear. He is currently imprisoned with no bond.