The Galveston County Daily News

No one may be anticipating a verdict in the murder trial of Royce Clyde Ziegler II more than Sheryl Sawyers, the grandmother of the girl who became known as Baby Grace.

Ziegler, 26, is accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter Riley Ann Sawyers on July 25, 2007, and dumping her body into Galveston Bay. Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, was convicted in February in the death of her daughter. Authorities called the little girl Baby Grace until they learned her identity.

As the case moves into its second week, Sawyers waits for what she hopes will be another guilty verdict. She wears multicolored bracelets, as well as a ring with Riley’s birthstone and engraved with her name, as a show of support for the slain girl.

“Yeah I think that it will end the same (as Trenor’s trial) and he deserves nothing less,” Sawyers said a day after testifying in Zeigler’s trial.

Zeigler admitted he attempted to destroy the evidence and sink the little girl’s body in Galveston Bay, but he holds to his story that Trenor, a woman with no history of child abuse, is the one who killed the 2-year-old girl.

It’s a version of the story Riley’s grandmother never will buy.

“For two years nothing, and then she moves down here and she moves in with him and in less than two months later, my granddaughter’s dead,” Sawyers said.

Zeigler’s defense attorney is urging the jury to look at the evidence in the case and not the emotion of a grieving grandmother.

“I don’t expect anybody to feel sorry for Royce Zeigler, I really don’t,” attorney Dee McWilliams said. “I just ask that we have a fair process here and that everyone holds the state, particularly the jury holds the state, to (its) burden or proof.”

McWilliams maintains there is no evidence showing that Zeigler killed Riley.

Prosecutors believe they will meet that burden of proof and the jury will find that Zeigler is guilty of the girl’s death and the attempted cover-up. If that is the case, Zeigler faces up to life in prison after Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk opted not to seek the death penalty in the capital murder case.

Sawyers said she is fine with that and hopes for a long prison sentence if Zeigler is found guilty.

“I think that would have been too easy of an out,” she said. “He’s 26 years old and he’s going live for a long time and he’s going live locked up for a long time.”

Zeigler’s murder trial resumes today.

Kevin Reece is a reporter with KHOU-TV. This story is provided through a content partnership between the television station and The Daily News.

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On The Web

Read reporter Chris Paschenko’s daily trial blogs, follow The Daily News extensive coverage of the Baby Grace case and find a link to video of Kevin Reece’s interview with Sheryl Sawyers in the On Patrol blog at galvnews.com.