Ruben Ebron pleads guilty in Lonzie's death

'Little boy lived a tragic, tragic life ... died a tragic death'

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ruben Ebron pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the death of Lonzie Barton on Friday morning. He will serve up to 20 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter, plus charges of child neglect, lying to police and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors said the remains found weeks ago in woods off Interstate 295 near Bayard were tentatively identified as Lonzie, who was in Ebron's care when he disappeared on July 24.

Assistant State Attorney Rich Mantei said Lonzie drowned in a bathtub after Ebron and the boy's mother, Lonna Barton, locked the boy in a room. They found him face down in the water. Police believe Ebron staged the boy's disappearance, which led to a massive, week-long search by hundreds of law enforcement officers and months of continuing investigation.

In court Friday morning, the public defender read a letter from Ebron in which he said: "I'd like to apologize"  to his family, Lonzie and Lonna Barton, who was Ebron's girlfriend when the boy disappeared, "None of you deserved the public scrutiny that this brought."

... it happened and both Lonna and I were both involved. This was a tragic accident made far worse by our horrible decision making. All we can do now is pay for the mistakes we have made and hopefully learn from them."  [Read entire letter by William Ruben Ebron Jr.]

Lonna Barton pleaded guilty in January to charges of child neglect and lying to police. She has not yet been sentenced.

Ebron's father, William Ebron, said he told his son six months ago that if something happened and they panicked, "Come clean now and we can do something about it."

"They've got an ultimate judge they've got to answer to. They've got to come to terms with their maker," William Ebron Sr. said. "This child deserved better."

Judge Mark Borello sentenced Ebron to 20 years on the aggravated manslaughter charge, five years on the child neglect count, five years on the tampering with evidence charge and one year on the lying to police count. All sentences would be served concurrently, so the 32-year-old Ebron's total time in prison would be 20 years.

 “In my 34 years as a prosecutor, child deaths have been the most difficult cases we can handle,” State Attorney Angela Corey said after the hearing.

Already receiving criticism that Ebron should have got to trial and received a longer sentence, Corey said that after five months of searching without success for Lonzie’s body, “The negotiated disposition that we entered into today is the only way we could bring Lonzie home.”

Corey said while the autopsy could not determine a cause of death, there was evidence of injuries inflicted during child's life, including healed injuries, likely meaning the child had been abused during his short life.

"The community fell in love with this little boy," said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Chief Tom Hackney, who provided daily updated on the search after Lonzie's disappearance. "I wanted to find him and I wanted to get whatever justice we could. ... The joint decision that we reached to accept this plea (based on) the facts that we can prove ... vs. the emotions that we may carry ... don't always match."

Hackney said Ruben Ebron and Lonna Barton were having sex after locking Lonzie in that bathroom.

"This little boy lived a tragic, tragic life (and) died a tragic, tragic death," Hackney said. 

The forensic findings of Lonzie’s death and Ebron's statement could present new legal challenges for Lonna Barton, who has said from the beginning that her son was alive when she went to work as an adult dancer the night of July 23.


About the Authors:

Lifetime Jacksonville resident anchors the 8 and 9 a.m. weekday newscasts and is part of the News4Jax I-Team.

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