Stepdad Guilty of Killing 'Baby Grace' [2-Year Old's Body Washed Ashore In Blue Plastic Box]

GALVESTON, Texas, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- A Texas man has been convicted of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter, whose body was found by a fisherman washed up on a Galveston Bay beach.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, received an automatic sentence of life with no possibility of parole Friday, the Houston Chronicle reported. Jurors deliberated for just over four hours before finding him guilty.

The body of Riley Ann Sawyers was packed in a blue plastic box when it was discovered on Oct. 29, 2007. Investigators nicknamed the child "Baby Grace" before she was identified.

Prosecutors said Zeigler and his wife Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, killed the child while disciplining her and then dumped her body, telling a series of lies about her disappearance. One was that an Ohio social worker had come to the house and grabbed the child.

Zeigler's lawyers argued he only helped his wife cover up her daughter's death and pointed to the lack of evidence he was involved in the killing. Trenor was convicted this year and sentenced to life with no parole.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Jury convicts Baby Grace's stepdad
By HARVEY RICE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
GALVESTON — Royce Clyde Zeigler II stood stoically Friday as he heard the verdict finding him guilty of capital murder in the slaying of his 2-year-old stepdaughter, who became known as Baby Grace, but it hit his mother like a thunderbolt. Surrounded by grim family members and friends, Nellie Zeigler slumped sobbing on the courtroom bench, muttering, “I just don't understand.”
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for four hours and 20 minutes before delivering their verdict to state District Judge David Garner. Zeigler, 26, was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole. His wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, was convicted of capital murder in February for assisting him in the slaying of her daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers, and is serving the same sentence.
Although prosecutors had no direct evidence proving that Zeigler killed Riley, jurors in the end were swayed by Zeigler's failure to call police or 911 as she lay dying on the floor of his Spring home July 25, 2007.
“It was more the omission than the commission,” said juror Michael Austin, 56, of Friendswood.

Royce Clyde Zeigler
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