Affidavit: `Baby Grace' was beaten with belts, held under water, thrown across room by hair
Friday, December 28, 2007 at 4:10 p.m.
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - A 2-year-old girl whose body was found in Galveston Bay was beaten by her mother and stepfather with leather belts, held under water, and grabbed by her hair and flung her across a room onto a tile floor, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The affidavit released Thursday said Riley Ann Sawyers' stepfather placed the girl's body in a bathtub, covered her with a purple towel and shut the shower curtain so her mother couldn't see her dead child.
The stepfather, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, and Riley's mother, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 19, have been indicted on capital murder charges. Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Zeigler's attorney, Neal Davis III, said the affidavit is based on information Trenor gave police and that her credibility will be challenged at trial.
Trenor told police the beating was a discipline session that went awry because the toddler didn't remember to say "please," and "yes, sir" to her stepfather. Davis has denied the account.
Authorities say Zeigler and Trenor stuffed Riley's body in a plastic container and hid it inside a storage shed at the house for up to two months before dumping it in Galveston Bay.
The box washed ashore and was found by a fisherman in October. Authorities dubbed Riley "Baby Grace" as they spent weeks searching for her identity and family.
The affidavit said investigators searched for the shower curtain, the bath towel and other evidence in a rented storage unit and the Spring residence of Trenor and Zeigler.
They recovered the shower curtain, a desktop computer, a box containing notebook pads and paper, digital images, a bathtub slip mat, files, the contents of a dryer lint trap and bathroom sink pipes, the affidavit said.
Items the investigators were looking for but didn't find were a shovel, bleach, trash bags, latex gloves, concrete mix and other goods. Trenor told police those items were used to dispose of the body.
Davis said his own investigation of the home did not turn up any evidence to support Trenor's claim that Zeigler picked up Riley by the hair and threw her across the room.
"There is no evidence to corroborate this story of a towel being draped over her face," he said.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
