'Baby Grace' Stepdad Dumped Girl's Body but Didn't Kill Her, Lawyer Says at Start of Trial - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

'Baby Grace' Stepdad Dumped Girl's Body but Didn't Kill Her, Lawyer Says at Start of Trial - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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GALVESTON, Texas — A man accused of murdering his 2-year-old stepdaughter put her body in the trash and dumped in it the Galveston Bay — but he didn't kill her, his lawyer told jurors on Wednesday.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, is charged with capital murder in the death 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, whose body was discovered in a plastic box on an island in the bay in 2007.  Before her remains were identified, Riley was called "Baby Grace" until news accounts helped relatives in Ohio recognize and identify her.  Zeigler's wife and Riley's mother, 21-year-old Kimberly Dawn Trenor, in February was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors allege that the couple beat the child and threw her to a tile floor, which fractured her skull.

During Wednesday's opening statements, defense attorney Neal Davis III said his client walked into the family's home in Spring, a Houston suburb, to find his wife with her unconscious child in July 2007.
"He put her in a trash bag and in another container and put it in the bay," Davis told jurors. "There is not one iota of evidence that Royce Zeigler knowingly, intentionally or in any way caused the death of Riley Sawyers," Davis said. "He is not only not guilty, he is innocent."

But Galveston County prosecutor Kayla Allen told jurors that Zeigler lied repeatedly to investigators, giving them conflicting statements on the girl's death.  "Royce Clyde Zeigler and Kimberly lied to everyone they could lie to," Allen said. "They lied to their family, co-workers and police over and over."  Prosecutors showed the Galveston County jury, made up of nine men and three women, video of Zeigler admitting to dumping the child's body in Galveston Bay, the Galveston County Daily News reported.  After their arrests, Trenor and Zeigler offered contradictory statements. Trenor said in a videotaped statement that Zeigler stayed home from work July 25, 2007, to make sure Riley was properly disciplined. She said she and Zeigler beat Riley with a belt, held her head under bath water and smothered her with a pillow.  Ziegler said in hiis first interview, said Riley disappeared after an Ohio welfare worker snatched her from his home. He abandoned the story in his second interview. Asked repeatedly during the first interview if Riley was Baby Grace, Zeigler said, "I swear to God I do not know that." In his second interview, he acknowledged that Riley was Baby Grace.  An autopsy determined that the child died of two skull fractures. Prosecutors have said Trenor and Zeigler beat Riley with belts, dunked her head in cold bath water and threw her onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull and causing her death.

"You'll see at the end of the trial Royce Zeigler is full of nothing but lies, and that he and his wife murdered Riley Ann Sawyers," Allen said.  As with Trenor, Galveston County prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Zeigler.

This is just perposterous! a baby beat with a belt what could a child have doen so bad at that age to deserve such torure?  That mother needs to taken out and be shot or other resolve she doesn't deserve to live after this whole ordeal and then get away with the lies for two years!  Yes kids are gonna upset you on a bad day but my god be the adult and walk away and know when to say when  She was such a beautiful little girl and taken away so early in life; if her mother didn't want her give her up for adoption don't turn her into a punching bag or beat her to death.  There are so many kids in this world without parents and then there are parents like these that have kids that shouldn't and then there are parents who can't have kids that should have the chance to take care of kids before the road leads to this demise.

The reason why I feel this way is because I know what a temper can do and lead to as I had a rough parent but I also know the remorse he had after the aftermath.  Yes I turned out fine, but I also know I have a temper but as a mother I had a really good reasoning in learning patience and if it bothered me just to walk away, there is nothing wrong with that at all.  Where people just don't get it is that this is not their world, it's our world and their kids aren't just their kids they are our kids......