Baby Grace trial: Mum gets life sentence

A mother was convicted of capital murder on Monday for the death of her two-year-old daughter, who was whipped with belts and flung onto a tile floor to teach her manners

u00a0

Kimberly Dawn Trenor (20), reacts as Judge David Garner polls the jury onu00a0after findingu00a0her guilty of capital murder for theu00a0death of her daughter Riley Ann Sawyers, known as "Baby Grace."

A mother was convicted of capital murder on Monday for the death of her two-year-old daughter, who was whipped with belts and flung onto a tile floor to teach her manners, before her body was dumped in a box in Galveston Bay. Jurors deliberated less than two hours before finding Kimberly Trenor guilty. She received an automatic sentence of life without parole. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

"Justice has been served today. Today it's about Riley" u2014 the victim, Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said after the verdict.

Trenor and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, were accused of killing Riley Ann Sawyers while disciplining her in July 2007. Prosecutors said Trenor and Zeigler beat Riley with belts, dunked her head in cold water and threw her onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull. Zeigler's capital murder trial will be held later.

After Riley's death, the couple stuffed her body in a plastic box and hid it at their suburban Houston home before dumping it in Galveston Bay, according to authorities.

Sheriff's investigators dubbed the toddler "Baby Grace" during the weeks they worked to identify her remains, found by a fisherman. Many of those investigators were in the courtroom Monday and cried as the verdict was read.

"We all made a promise to that little girl ... that we would find the people responsible for her death and bring them to justice and we did," sheriff's Sgt Michael Barry said.

Riley's identity was a mystery for weeks until her paternal grandmother in Ohio, Sheryl Sawyers, saw an artist's sketch of the girl and told authorities in Texas she thought it was her granddaughter.

Sawyers testified during the trial and was in the courtroom as the verdict was read. She did not speak with reporters afterward.

"She looked at Kimberly as a daughter," said Laura DePledge, an attorney for the Sawyers family. "It's a victory for Riley, but it's another loss for Sheryl and the Trenor family."

Trenor admitted taking part in the discipline session but blamed 25-year-old Zeigler for throwing Riley across the family room and causing the skull fractures.

Trenor's defense attorney, Tommie Stickler Jr., said he was disappointed by the verdict but wasn't surprised by how quickly the jury decided. Jurors had the option of convicting Trenor of two lesser charges.

"This was unacceptable abuse that will be punished but it's not capital murder," Stickler said during his closing arguments.

Stickler said Trenor never intended to kill her daughter, depicting her as a frightened 18 year old at the time of Riley's death who was being controlled by her husband.

But prosecutor Kayla Allen told jurors Trenor was a strong person who killed her daughter because the girl was in the way of her happiness with her new husband.

The foreman, Randall Rothschild, said jurors felt the case was "pretty cut and dried."

"It's an emotional trial because of the victim," Rothschild said as his eyes became teary. "That was hard to set aside (emotions) and stick to the facts. But we did and justice is served."

u00a0