This is odd. A man has been charged with killing his own brother 34 years ago, when the brother was 6. The brother was also raped. Eeyew! The family sounds like it has had more than their share of scrapes with the law.
One of the weird things I noticed when I read the story was the name of the murdered brother: Vincent Barbarino. If memory serves correctly, that was the name of John Travolta's character on Welcome Back, Kotter. The series ran from 1975 to 1979, which was a few years after the murder. Just a weird pop culture thing.
But, if this is accurate, how vile! Raping and murdering your own brother, a six-year old. Ick!
Brother charged with killing boy 34 years ago
POSTED: 12:02 p.m. EST, November 15, 2006LODI, New Jersey (AP) -- In 1972, the body of a 6-year-old boy was found in the cab of a water truck at a construction site, nude and battered. He had been raped, stabbed and strangled.
Thirty-four years later, the boy's brother has been charged with his murder, and on Tuesday, a third sibling, Michael Barbarino, called on his family to help investigators prosecute him.
"I cannot and will not support my brother," Michael Barbarino said at a news conference.
Joseph Barbarino, 50, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and felony murder under juvenile statutes stemming from the April 5, 1972, death of his brother, Vincent Barbarino.
Barbarino, who was 15 at the time of the slaying, is being held without bail in the county jail.
The prosecutor's office said it plans to decide later whether to seek to try him as an adult.
County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Monday at a news conference announcing Joseph Barbarino's arrest that the teenager lured his younger brother to a construction site intending to sexually assault him.
There was evidence of a struggle and the child's body was found in the cab of a water truck, he said. An autopsy indicated Vincent Barbarino had been stabbed numerous times and his skull had been fractured.
Molinelli said the elder Barbarino had been raping the child for "quite some time."
One brother denounces anotherImmediately after Joseph Barbarino pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday, Michael Barbarino went before cameras outside the Bergen County Courthouse to denounce him and ask the rest of the family to tell investigators what they know about the killing.
He said he is asking everybody in the family to tell authorities what they know, "and stop hiding," he said.
His plea to family members to speak out was just the latest twist in a saga that has roiled the family -- and this Bergen County town -- for a generation.
Michael Barbarino, 38, was 3 years old when his brother Vincent was killed. He said he gave a statement to authorities in 1988.
"Other people in my family have spoken with the police," he said. "They are now sitting behind closed doors like they don't know nothing. I will not support that."
At the time, the killing spread fear throughout northern New Jersey, and the case prompted many parents here to keep their children indoors after school for weeks afterward.
Local and county authorities revisiting the old case developed new forensic evidence that did not include DNA, said Michael Mordaga, chief of detectives for the prosecutor's office. Mordaga said Michael Barbarino would be a key witness in the case, but that others were also expected to give crucial testimony.
Police know the familyThe Barbarino family is well known to police.
On Christmas Day 1995, Michael Barbarino held police at bay for two hours, threatening to shoot himself and any officer who got too near him, said Police Chief Vincent Caruso, who was a hostage negotiator that day and ultimately persuaded Barbarino to surrender.
Barbarino was not armed, and he was referred for psychiatric evaluation, the chief said. "He was in a garage and said he had a handgun and he was going to shoot the first police officer through the door," Caruso said.
Michael Barbarino also served three years in prison for burglary and was jailed a year later for setting fire to an apartment building.
Joseph Barbarino, a married plumber's assistant who lives at home with his mother, has a criminal history dating to 1979, when he served six months in jail for assault with a deadly weapon. He also has served time in prison for burglary and arson.
It was not immediately clear what maximum penalties Joseph Barbarino could face if convicted as a juvenile because the law has changed considerably since the killing, authorities said.
Under laws at the time of the killing, penalties range from probation to life in prison.
for all u people out there that read about joseph barbarino all this is a lie he never raped his 6 yr old brother vincent nor did he kill them michael barbarino was never there either he was home sleeping with his two sisters the real killer is already dead
ann:
you sound like you know something that could help exonerate Joseph Barbarino.
Why not come forward if you really do have information and not waste this info on web sites. Especially if, as you say, the real killer is already dead.
You hint that you have inside infromation on what really happened. And the Babarinos have a sister named Ann Marie....coincidence? I doubt it!
ANN IS ONE OF THE TWINS . I NEW THIS FAMILY WELL .I WAS A NEIGHBOR JUST A FEW HOUSES AWAY WHEN I WAS GROWING UP THERE ALL NUTS ! IN LODI THERE KNOW AS THE THEIVES OF THE TOWN . THERE IS NO WAY MICHAEL COULD HAVE KNOWN WHAT HAPPENED HE WAS TO YOUNG . AS FOR JOE WHO KNOWS WOULD I PUT IT PAST HIM NO . BACK TO MICHAEL IF HE IS SO CREDIBLE WHY IS HE NOW SITTING IN BERGEN PINES HOSPITAL IN PARAMUS ACTING LIKE HE IS NUTS ! AS HE ALWAYS DOES WHEN HE GETS ARRESTED .HE WAS ARRESTED FOR DEALING DRUGS IN A SCHOOL ZONE AND POSSESION OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS WITH NO PRESCRIPTION NEED I SAY MORE ! THERE ALL LOSERS WITH NO DIRECTION IN LIFE UNLESS TRAILER PARK TRASH IS THERE MISSION ..... WANT INFO JUST ASK HERE DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT MURDER BUT KNOW ABOUT THE FAMILY WOULD LOVE TO SEE THEM ALL MOVE VERY FAR AWAY AND NEW GO BACK TO LODI