UPDATE: The owner of the waterlogged Bugatti was identified by police on Friday as Andy House of Lufkin. Click here for the full update.

Also Friday, video of the actual crash surfaced online. Matt Hardigree the associate editor of Jalopnik.com, a Web site for car enthusiasts, posted the video shot by a man who was traveling north on I-45. No pelican was visible in the video, which shows the car veering from the road and splashing in the lagoon.

On Saturday we heard from the University of Texas Medical student Joe Garza who actually shot the video. You will hear from him more in a story on Tuesday. Below is the link to his video.



Watch the video at Jalopnik.com by clicking here. Warning: The video contains swearing.


ORIGINAL POST: A distracted owner of a Bugatti Veyron, one of the world's fastest production cars, accidently drove Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, the French-built automobile into a saltwater lagoon in La Marque. The driver was uninjured, but the car, which can sell for around $2 million, was partially submerged in three feet of water.

Jamaica Beach police hosted a helicopter water crash training seminar Wednesday at the San Luis Resort pool in Galveston.

Sheryl Sawyers, the paternal grandmother of Riley Ann Sawyers, spoke to reporters Friday, following the capital murder verdict a jury handed Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, in connection with the death of Baby Grace.



District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk and Galveston County Sheriff's investigator Sgt. Mike Barry react to the guilty verdict.



Defense Attorney Dee McWilliams answers questions Friday, following the guilty verdict against his client. Royce Clyde Zeigler II was convicted of capital murder Friday in the death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.

Editor's note: Daily News reporter Chris Paschenko is covering the murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler who is accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter who became known as Baby Grace. In addition to his regular reports, Chris will post a blog entry at the end of the day's court proceedings.

Click here for The Daily News special report: Baby Grace.

Midway through Thursday afternoon’s testimony in the capital murder trial of a stepfather accused of killing Baby Grace, a television reporter showed me her cell phone.

Seven dead, 12 injured at Fort Hood shooting, read the headline.

Another day of grueling testimony, of how the death of a 2-year-old toddler named Riley Ann Sawyers affected the lives of so many, became even more disheartening with the news.

After the defense and state rested, reports of 12 dead and 31 wounded in possibly the worst shooting incident on a U.S. military base left those remaining in the courtroom in disbelief.

The news of the shootings paralleled a day of testimony, in which witness after witness testified they were “shocked” to learn such a mild-mannered, shy, socially stunted young man could have killed a little girl he loved.

Picking up the pieces and rebuilding lives shattered by senseless violence is becoming too common a trait.

More Baby Grace trial blogs

Editor's note: Daily News reporter Chris Paschenko is covering the murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler who is accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter who became known as Baby Grace. In addition to his regular reports, Chris will post a blog entry at the end of the day's court proceedings.

Click here for The Daily News special report: Baby Grace.

Come Thursday, Baby Grace trial spectators should know whether the stepfather accused of killing her will take the stand in his defense.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, has remained mostly silent, taking notes and briefly speaking with his attorneys during the trial, which so far has included testimony from 31 different witnesses over six days.

Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, didn’t take the stand in her capital murder trial and was convicted Feb. 2 in the death of her daughter Riley Ann Sawyers.

The jury isn’t allowed to hold Zeigler’s silence against him, but it would make sense that they might want to hear from the man accused of such atrocities against a toddler.

Meanwhile, Zeigler’s defense team trotted nine witnesses to the stand Wednesday, including seven whose mental picture of the defendant is one of a gentle giant, a teddy bear, one that is incapable of harming a soul.
Prosecution witnesses painted Zeigler as a calculated liar.

The defense claims Zeigler did something unthinkable in trying to hide, bury and ultimately dumping Sawyers’ body in Galveston Bay.

I can’t help but wonder if the parade of defense witnesses, and their glowing review of his life before Trenor, won favor with the jury.

More Baby Grace trial blogs

Editor's note: Daily News reporter Chris Paschenko is covering the murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler who is accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter who became known as Baby Grace. In addition to his regular reports, Chris will post a blog entry at the end of the day's court proceedings.

Click here for The Daily News special report: Baby Grace.

Baby Grace’s stepfather lied to investigators when he said he heard screams and then found the toddler dead, testimony in a capital murder trial revealed Tuesday.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, changed his story during separate videotaped interviews with sheriff’s office investigators. In his last tape, where he admits dumping the body of Riley Ann Sawyers, he claims to have heard screams then entered his living room to find his stepdaughter dead.

Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison for killing her daughter.

Zeigler told authorities in his interview that he called in sick from work July 25, 2007, and slept most of the day, but he heard screaming and yelling coming from the living room.

He entered to see Sawyers dead with purple bruises about her body.

The final witness called by prosecutors was Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, who refuted Zeigler’s claim.

Sawyers suffered three skull fractures, but Sistrunk asked Pustilnik whether her death could have come that quickly.
“It could have been many minutes or many hours,” Pustilnik said. “It’s not immediate.”

The inference was that it was medically impossible, considering the blunt-force trauma injury, for the toddler to be alive and screaming one moment and dead the next.

More Baby Grace trial blogs

Editor's note: Daily News reporter Chris Paschenko is covering the murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler who is accused of killing his 2-year-old stepdaughter who became known as Baby Grace. In addition to his regular reports, Chris will post a blog entry at the end of the day's court proceedings.

Click here for The Daily News special report: Baby Grace.

A jury hearing the capital murder trial of Royce Clyde Zeigler II took Monday a virtual tour of the inside of the house authorities say his stepdaughter nicknamed Baby Grace died.

The jury didn’t see all 177 photos taken by investigators combing the house rented by Zeigler and his wife Kimberly Dawn Trenor in Spring, but the pictures on display for the jury covered the home better than any online real estate tour could.

The jury saw shots of the couple’s tile floor, where authorities say Riley Ann Sawyers could have suffered three skull fractures from being thrown to the ground.

Jurors also saw the bathroom and close-up shots of the tub, where authorities say Riley was dunked in cold bath water and placed after her death to be “cleaned up.”

The jury saw photographs of the 4-foot wide carport closet, where she was stored like trash until her body was dumped weeks later in Galveston Bay.

The jury also saw the toddler’s stained clothing and shoes. Unlike her autopsy photos, Zeigler managed a few peeks at the shirt, skirt and shoes before averting his eyes.

More Baby Grace trial blogs