Miami-Dade nurse sentenced to life in prison for murder, abuse of adopted daughters

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A registered nurse and foster mother from Miami-Dade County found guilty of murdering one of her adopted daughters and abusing the other two was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, nearly five years after the death of Samaya, a 7-year-old girl.

Gina Emmanuel, 56, showed no emotion as the verdicts and sentences were read in a Miami-Dade courtroom.

She received a mandatory life sentence for first-degree murder, plus two concurrent 30-year sentences for aggravated child abuse involving her other adopted daughters, Ayana and Tanaya.

Prosecutors said the three girls — ages 5, 7 and 12 at the time — were subjected to horrific abuse inside Emmanuel’s home on West Dixie Highway in northeast Miami-Dade, in separate incidents dating back to 2018.

Investigators described conditions including food deprivation, beatings with belts, confinement, and being forced to use a bucket as a toilet.

“She kept her refrigerator chained. These three girls were forced to urinate and defecate in a bucket. They were malnourished, whipped. They didn’t see a pediatrician,” a prosecutor told the court earlier this month.

Samaya died from untreated pneumonia, compounded by long-term abuse, authorities said.

Ayana Gordon, now 18, testified during the trial about the trauma she and her sisters endured.

“I’m not gonna say it was easy,” she said. “It’s mentally exhausting, but it’s over… She was only 7, so it’s not fair.”

Emmanuel, who adopted the girls after fostering them, was arrested in October 2019. Her defense argued that she didn’t fully grasp how ill Samaya was and sought to deflect blame for the abuse, but jurors rejected that claim.

A Miami-Dade judge ordered that her three sentences will be served concurrently at a Florida state prison.