Texas' Baby Grace case sees first trial this week
Associated Press Writer
GALVESTON, Texas - Even the most grizzled investigators were reduced to tears by the disturbing details of the death of 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers.
The tot's already decomposed remains had been stuffed into a plastic container that was dumped into Galveston Bay. A fisherman found the container and its contents on a tiny island about a mile from the shore of the huge bay in October 2007.
This undated booking photo released by the Galveston County Sheriff's office shows Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, of Spring, Texas. Zeigler and
his wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, are charged in the death of Trenor's 2-year-old daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, whose body washed up in Galveston
Bay on Oct. 29, 2007. Jury selection is scheduled to begin in Trenor's trial on Monday, Jan. 26, 2009, in Galveston, Texas. (AP Photo/Galveston
County Sheriff's Office, File)
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On Monday, jury selection is set to begin for the capital murder trial of Riley Ann's mother, 20-year-old Kimberly Dawn Trenor. She and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, are accused of beating the toddler to death in July 2007.
After the gruesome discovery in Galveston Bay, the toddler was dubbed "Baby Grace" until authorities were able to identify the tiny remains as Riley Ann.
"I saw a lot of real tears from a lot of old-time, seasoned detectives who took this home with them every night," said Tim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer search organization that helped in the investigation.
That community reaction could easily complicate the task of choosing jurors.
Trenor told police the beating began during a discipline session when Riley Ann forgot to say "please" and "yes, sir" to Zeigler, her stepfather.
According to an arrest affidavit, Trenor said she and Zeigler used two leather belts to beat Riley and also held her head under water. But she claims it was Zeigler who grabbed Riley by her hair and flung her across a room onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull in three places and killing her, an autopsy concluded.
Authorities said the couple hid the little girl's body for a month or two in a storage shed at their home in Spring, a northern Houston suburb, before dumping it in the bay 70 miles away.
