By Joe Johnson
The stepmother of a child who died Tuesday in her Bethlehem home has been arrested for the 8-year-old girl's alleged murder, police announced on Wednesday.
Natiela Barros, 34, was charged with murder and other crimes in connection with the child's death.
Police said the girl died in a neighborhood of Bethlehem that lies on the Gwinnett County side of the border with neighboring Barrow County.
Gwinnett homicide detectives had gone to the family's home on Vine Springs after personnel who responded there to a reported medical emergency found the child dead.
According to police, Barros was married to the child’s biological father, who was told over the phone by Barris that the child unresponsive.
Upon arriving home the father called 911 and started CPR on the child, police said.
According to an arrest warrant, “Barros beat the victim with a wooden rolling pin 10-20 times, refusing to get her medical care afterward, and the incident resulted in her death.”
Barros is charged with cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated assault, felony murder, and malice murder and is being held without bail at the Gwinnett County Jail.