JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Ruben Ebron almost led police to where he disposed of Lonzie Barton's remains hours after reporting the toddler missing last July, court records obtained Wednesday by First Coast News show.
On the same day Barton disappeared, Ebron expressed a desire to show police where the child could be found, according to court documents. Ebron didn't fulfill that promise until last month when he led them to human remains hidden underneath a tire in a wooded area off Snyder Street on Jacksonville's Southside.
Police reports suggest Ebron repeatedly stymied investigators in the days following the toddler's disappearance by steering their search to several different parts of town. But at one point on July 24, Ebron took police to where Interstate 95 and Philips Highway meet -- just five miles from where remains believed to be Barton's were eventually found Jan. 11.
Those details, and others, surfaced in volumes of interviews, police reports, and audio and video files released Wednesday through the discovery process, by which evidence for and against defendants are made public.
Ebron initially reported Barton missing about 2 a.m. July 24, saying the child had been abducted when his car was stolen. Police located the car hours later, but the toddler was nowhere to be found.
About 9 p.m. on the same day, Ebron allegedly told detectives he wanted to "show them where the victim was," according to court documents. Detectives took Ebron for a ride with an audio recorder running, but when they got to I-95 and Philips, Ebron told investigators "he never said he wanted to take them to where the victim was," but instead planned to show them the "route" he took that night.
The next day on July 25, detectives took Ebron on another recorded ride aimed at getting him to direct their search to where he may have disposed of the child's body. "During the interview, Ebron denied disposing of the victim's body as well as being involved in the victim's demise," court documents say.
Investigators spent several days retracing the steps Ebron said he took the night Barton went missing -- including stops at a laundromat, a discount store and an auto shop -- before he asked to speak with them July 28. That's when Ebron asked for a map and instructed investigators to search near the intersection of Pecan Park and Castleberry roads on the Northside, saying there would be "no water" involved.
Police also focused on what information they could glean from Barton's older sister, who had been with Ebron the night her brother went missing. In an interview with a child protective worker, the 5-year-old girl blurted out at one point, "I miss my little brother he got stolen."
"The truth is my little brother got kidnapped. I left him in the car all alone," she told child protective investigators in a follow-up interview. "It's my fault."
The girl broke down at school on Aug. 28, according to police reports. "My baby brother is dead," she said, later telling her teacher that "they killed him with a knife and threw him in the woods."
In August, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office called off an Amber Alert for Barton, saying his disappearance was being investigated as a homicide. Video evidence, police said, unraveled Ebron's account that the toddler had been kidnapped.
Both Ebron and the child's mother, Lonna Barton, were arrested on charges of child neglect and giving false information to law enforcement. Barton later accepted a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Ebron.
Lonzie Barton, Ebron later told police, died in the bathtub at an apartment he shared with the toddler's mother while the couple had sex July 24. In a panic, Ebron acknowledged, he disposed of the child's body off Snyder Street.
Ebron pleaded guilty Feb. 5 to charges of aggravated manslaughter, child neglect, evidence tampering, and giving false information to law enforcement as part of a plea deal that carries a 20-year prison sentence.
Unrelated charges connected to an alleged plot to escape from custody were later dropped. There are still outstanding drug charges against Ebron in Baker County, where he's currently in custody.