Lawyers prepare for closing arguments in Baby Grace trial
Nov. 6--GALVESTON -- Attorneys today began haggling over the wording of the instructions that District Judge David Garner will give to the jury before the decide whether Royce Clyde Zeigler II is guilty of capital murder in the slaying of Baby Grace.
The prosecution and the defense will give closing arguments before the nine men and three women begin deliberations after hearing seven days of testimony.
Zeigler is accused of the July 25, 2007, slaying of 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, who was given the name Baby Grace after her unidentified body was discovered on an island in West Galveston Bay.
The prosecution wants to convince jurors that Zeigler, 26, and his wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, both of Spring, killed Riley during a brutal disciplinary session and then conspired to cover up the crime. Trenor was conivicted of capital murder in February and is serving a life sentence.
Zeigler admitted to investigators that he helped pack Riley's body in plastic trash bags and placed it in a blue plastic box that was stored in a storage room in the garage of his residence.
He said he tossed the box off a Galveston Island railroad bridge. A fisherman discovered the box Oct. 29, 2007.
Zeigler told investigators he was in another room when Trenor killed Riley.
Trenor, in a videotaped statement played at her trial but not during Zeigler's, said she and Zeigler beat Riley with a belt, held her head under bath water and put a pillow over her face. She said it was Zeigler who hulred Riley onto a tile floor. The medical examiner testified that the impacts that caused three skull fractures could have killed her.
harvey.rice@chron.com
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