GALVESTON — With welling tears and a crackling voice, an Ohio woman testified Thursday how she learned the decomposed body of Baby Grace was that of her 2-year-old granddaughter.
Sheryl Ann Sawyers took the stand in the capital murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, who is accused of killing his stepdaughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, on July 25, 2007.
Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, who conceived Riley with Sawyers’ then-17-year-old son, was convicted Feb. 2 of capital murder in Riley’s death.
Sawyers recalled the life of Riley until Memorial Day 2007, which was the last time she saw her grandchild. She later saw a sketch of the little girl’s face on a Web site.
Trenor, 21, and Riley moved to Spring, and Trenor married Zeigler on June 1, 2007.
Authorities released the sketch of Baby Grace after a fisherman, Robert Spinn, found the remains of a child on Oct. 29, 2007. The body was wrapped in bags that were stuffed in a plastic container, which had washed onto an island in Galveston Bay.
The discovery set off a 26-day search for the identity of the toddler called Baby Grace.
Trenor and Zeigler, in separate interviews with authorities, accused each other of cleaning and wrapping Riley’s body, which then sat in their garage for weeks until a botched burial in the “boondocks.”
In a taped interview played for the jury Wednesday, Zeigler admitted he dumped the container into Galveston Bay.
Fisherman Finds Child’s Body
Spinn told the jury Thursday he was fishing for flounder when he happened upon an island just southwest of Harborwalk Marina in Hitchcock.
Using a beam of light to navigate his boat, he saw an overturned blue, plastic container. Spinn rolled it over and heard a thud. He opened the bags and said he knew something inside was dead.
“I felt around with my hands until I felt something hard,” Spinn said. “I opened up the other end of the bag and there happened to be a shoe.” Spinn called his wife and then 911.
Lt. Randy Burrows, of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, testified the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. The child was wearing pink and white shoes, Burrows said.
“Sheriff’s office investigators went to stores and talked to manufactures of these clothes so we could show the public,” Burrows said.
Sawyers testified she saw an artist’s drawing of Baby Grace, which led her to call authorities.
“I had a granddaughter living down there, and the clothing looked familiar and some other things fit,” Sawyers said. Investigators interviewed Trenor and Zeigler.
‘Baby Grace Was Riley’
Sawyers recalled a phone conversation with Sgt. Mike Barry of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.
“He said Baby Grace was Riley,” Sawyers said, while wiping away tears.
“He called to tell me they were pretty sure it was her, and he did come to Ohio. I still thought they had her hidden, maybe to try to keep her away from us.”
After testimony ended Thursday, Zeigler’s attorneys Neal Davis III and Dee McWilliams said any case involving the death of a 2-year-old child would be an emotional one.
“There’s no doubt she loved Riley,” Davis said. “But the core issue is whether there’s reasonable doubt that Royce Zeigler killed Riley. We still have a long way to go before the state meets that burden.”
The trial is heavy on emotion and short on evidence, McWilliams said. “If you can evoke enough emotion, you can get the jury to ignore who killed Riley,” McWilliams said.
Another witness testifying Thursday was sheriff’s office Lt. Tommy Hansen. After interviewing the defendant, Hansen accused Zeigler of having a selective memory of incidents related to Riley’s death.
Zeigler’s ‘Memory Loss’
Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk asked Hansen whether Zeigler had memory loss or was telling lies.
“Lies — to remove himself from the crime,” Hansen said.
Zeigler’s lawyers claim there is no evidence he killed Riley. Authorities said a suicide note links Zeigler to the homicide.
Riley died from two skull fractures to the head, suffered during a disciplinary session in which she was thrown to a tile floor and had her head put in a pillow and in cold bath water, according to Trenor’s testimony during her trial.
Zeigler attempted suicide after Riley’s body was found. He was held in the county jail under a suicide watch in a padded cell. He complained of being naked and cold. He also complained of being forced to lie in his own urine, because the only urinal was a hole in the floor.
Corrections officer Michael Jones testified inmates placed on suicide watch are monitored at least every 15 minutes.
Prosecutor Kayla Allen asked Jones whether Zeigler’s statement about his treatment was true.
“No ma’am,” Jones replied. “That would be his choice to sleep in his urine.”
Motion For Mistrial Denied
Burrows, a sheriff’s office lieutenant, took the witness stand after Jones. Sistrunk asked Burrows what lies Zeigler had told him. Burrows said Zeigler had claimed that Ohio child protective services had taken Riley.
Zeigler told authorities he’d worked every day and then would go home and go to bed, but Burrows said his investigation revealed the couple attended Zeigler’s work party just 10 days after Riley’s death.
Sistrunk asked what other lies Zeigler told him.
“It would probably be easier to tell you what was true,” Burrows said.
Zeigler’s description of the couple’s “rocky” relationship also was a lie, Burrows said.
Burrows said Zeigler was controlling of Trenor, but the defense objected. Attorneys met with Judge David Garner, and the defense asked for a mistrial. Burrows’ statement was one lawyers had agreed wouldn’t be discussed before the jury without first asking the judge about admissibility.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this officer is not qualified to give personality traits,” Garner told the jury. “Decide the case from fact, not opinion. Motion for mistrial is denied.”
If convicted, Zeigler faces life in prison without parole.
State testimony is expected to continue this morning. The trial, which began Tuesday with jury selection, is expected to last two weeks.
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Baby Grace Blog
Chris Paschenko has more coverage of the Baby Grace murder trial in the On Patrol blog at galvnews.com.
