WISCASSET — An annulment hearing was postponed for a married couple who are both charged with the murder in the death of the woman’s 10-year-old daughter.
Sharon Carrillo, 34, sought to void her marriage to Julio Carrillo, 52, because he had never divorced at least one prior wife, according to Sharon Carillo’s attorney, Chris MacLean.
But moments before the proceeding was to begin Thursday, a bailiff emerged to announce that the hearing would not take place. It was expected to be the first time that Sharon Carrillo would speak publicly since she was arrested and charged with depraved indifference murder in the death of her daughter, Marissa Kennedy, in Stockton Springs in February 2018. Her husband, Julio Carrillo, faces the same charge.
The prospect that Julio Carrillo maintained multiple marriages emerged in March 2018. Kathleen Carrillo, then 66, told the Portland Press Herald that she was married to Julio Carrillo for six years before he left her in 2006, but it was unknown to her whether their marriage was ever legally dissolved.
Attempts to reach Kathleen Carrillo for comment this week were not successful and a telephone message left for a relative was not returned. However, an online obituary for a woman of the same name who lived in the same part of Kentucky as Kathleen Carrillo and died in September at age 67 contains details that match those of Kathleen Carrillo’s life.
MacLean said his proposed annulment order was to be based on testimony by Sharon Carrillo. But MacLean said he may have to track down documents from other states where Julio Carrillo may have been married to other women in order to prove that he was never divorced from those people.
MacLean and Julio Carrillo’s attorney had agreed on a framework for the annulment request heading into Thursday’s hearing. If the agreement falls apart, however, the annulment process would become adversarial and the lawyers would go through the discovery process to gather facts from the other side, which could potentially include depositions by each spouse conducted by the other’s attorney.
Ronald Bourget, Julio Carrillo’s attorney, said in an interview later Thursday that the judge has reservations about whether Sharon Carrillo’s planned testimony met legal requirements for the court to grant an annulment.
Bourget did not answer a question about how many marriages his client has had.
“The matter was continued mostly over form, rather than substance,” Bourget said. “We’ve taken great time in working this case on the family law matter. And there were several agreements that were in place today. Whether or not those have unraveled or not, time will tell. But the form that was being presented to the court had to be to the court’s liking, and just taking testimony was not enough.”
The family court matter is civil in nature and separate from the criminal case against the Carrillos.
Kennedy was Sharon Carrillo’s biological daughter and Julio Carrillo’s step-daughter. The family was living in a condominium in Stockton Springs last February when police were called to the home and found Kennedy dead.
In interviews with police, both Carrillos admitted to brutally beating Kennedy daily, for weeks, before they found her unresponsive one morning and attempted to cover up her death by staging the accident scene in the basement.
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