BELFAST, Maine — Sharon Carrillo and her husband, Julio Carrillo, were charged with depraved indifference murder in the February 2018 death of 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy, Sharon's daughter.
Kennedy was found beaten to death at a home in Stockton Springs after being beaten for months by her mother and stepfather, who tried to make her death look like an accident, prosecutors have said.
The crime shocked the state and was one of several cases that prompted a state review of Maine’s child welfare system.
Julio, who pleaded guilty to fatally beating Kennedy, was sentenced in August to 55 years in prison for his role in Kennedy's murder.
Sharon has claimed she was also abused and is scheduled to stand trial this week.
Ahead of her trial, a competency hearing. Her defense attorney Chris Maclean told NEWS CENTER Maine because her IQ level is in the third or fifth percentile she may not understand some of the complex dealings of a murder trial.
"Which means virtually everyone in the world around us has a higher intellectual function. So anytime you have someone with that kind of reduced intellectual function... you have concerns about whether they're really understanding the complicated things that go on in a trial," Maclean said.
The judge has not yet ruled on if Sharon is competent enough to stand trial but is expected to do so before the trial begins.
The courts are closed on Tuesday due to snow but the jury is expected to be chosen on Wednesday.