George Edenfield & parents

Molester, His Parents Charged In Christopher's 'Horrific' Slaying
Prosecutor To Seek Death Penalty Against 3

POSTED: Wednesday, March 21, 2007



Prosecutor To Seek Death Penalty Against 3


BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- A convicted child molester and his father took turns sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy while the molester's mother watched, then they choked the boy to death, according to an indictment returned by the Glynn County grand jury on Wednesday.

The indictment charges George Edenfield and both his parents with murder, kidnapping and child molestation in the slaying of young Christopher Michael Barrios, whose body was found last Thursday inside a trash bag dumped by a roadside.

Glynn County District Attorney Stephen D. Kelley said he will seek the death penalty against 32-year-old George Edenfield, who has a prior child molestation conviction from 1997, and his parents, David and Peggy Edenfield. "This is one of the most horriffic crimes that I have seen in 21 years of prosecutions," Kelley said.

Christopher went missing for a week before police found his body about three miles from his trailer park home outside Brunswick, a Georgia port city 60 miles south of Savannah. The suspects lived in a mobile home across the street from the boy's grandmother.

The indictment contains grim details about the case that police and prosecutors had not previously revealed. It says Christopher died from asphixation March 8 -- the day he was reported missing -- after the suspects choked him while "ignoring his complaints that they were hurting him."

"It makes me sick and it makes me so angry," said Christopher's grandmother. "All four of them need to be charged with murder and they don't need to be kept alive long. They killed our baby. They don't even need to be alive now."

The indictment does not say which of three caused the boy's death.

It also claims George Edenfield and his 58-year-old father sodomized the boy and forced him to perform oral sex while Peggy Edenfield watched and masturbated.

"They deserve the worst, for them to torture my son like that, every last one of them," said Mike Barrios, the slain boy's father.

A friend of the Edenfield family, Donald Dale, was indicted on charges of concealing a death and tampering with evidence. Kelley said Dale did not become involved until after Christopher had been killed.

Nathan Williams, the attorney for 57-year-old Peggy Edenfield, declined to comment Wednesday. Attorneys for George and David Edenfield did not immediately return phone calls.

Glynn County police arrested the Edenfields four days after Christopher vanished while playing alone outside. Police Chief Matt Doering said all three suspects confessed to playing roles in the boy's abduction.

Police have said Dale admitted to investigators he helped the Edenfields dispose of Christopher's body. Other charges against the Edenfields include false imprisonment, cruelty to children and enticing a child for indecent purposes.

Police have described George Edenfield as mentally slow, but capable of understanding right from wrong. They have said he is not retarded.

Ironically, the Edenfields moved into the trailer park where Christopher lived last year because of a Georgia law intended to keep child molesters away from children.

Sheriffs' deputies told George Edenfield in September that he had to leave his home near downtown Brunswick because it was too close to a playground. Georgia law prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools and other places that draw children.

His family went to live in the trailer park in October after George Edenfield was arrested for failing to move as ordered. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to probation March 5, three days before Christopher disappeared.

George Edenfield was required to register as a sex offender after he pleaded guilty in 1997 to molesting two boys, ages 7 and 9. Prosecutors said he rubbed his clothed body "in a sexual manner" against the boys, who also were fully dressed. He was sentenced then to 10 years on probation.

His father, David Edenfield, pleaded guilty to incest in 1994. He was accused of having sex with an adult relative who was not his son.

Child Molester Got Probation Days Before Slain Boy Vanished

BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- Three days before Christopher Michael Barrios disappeared, a convicted child molester suspected in the 6-year-old's killing was sentenced to probation instead of prison time for violating conditions of Georgia's sex offender registry.

Court documents state that in 1997 George Edenfield, the man police said told them he killed Christopher, admitted he molested his neighbors -- a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old boy.

Edenfield never served prison time for his 1997 child molestation conviction after he struck a plea deal with prosecutors, according to a review of court records.

Stephen Kelley, district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, said on Monday that it was not a breakdown in the system -- just a tragic situation.

Still, Christopher's father and grandmother blamed the court system for not putting Edenfield in prison. Christopher's grandmother, Sue Rodriquez, said she is amazed the sex offender never served any prison time.

"They give him every opportunity to do everything he wants to do -- everything. If that was the case, why didn't they keep him in jail?" Rodriquez said. "I think that's awful sorry of the judge knowing his criminal -- that he already molested two children, he's on violation of probation, to turn around and send him home."

The 32-year-old Edenfield is one of four suspects arrested last week in connection with Christopher's abduction and slaying. His parents, Peggy and David Edenfield, as well as family friend Donald Dale were also arrested in connection with the boy's disappearance.

The child's body was found Thursday stuffed in a trash bag dumped along a wooded roadside about three miles from his home. He had been missing for a week.

On March 5, three days before Christopher vanished, George Edenfield pleaded guilty in Superior Court to violating a state law that prohibits sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds or other places that draw children.

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