The Galveston County Daily News

GALVESTON — Baby Grace’s discolored clothes and shoes — and the plastic bags and container used to store the 2-year-old toddler’s body — were shown Monday to a jury hearing the capital murder trial of her stepfather.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, glanced briefly at the tiny, child-size 8½ shoes that were pulled from the decomposed body of Riley Ann Sawyers.

Zeigler is accused of killing Riley on July 25, 2007, after a daylong disciplinary session. Sawyers suffered three skull fractures, according to evidence in the capital murder trial of Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor. Trenor was convicted Feb. 2.

Sgt. Mike Barry of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said he was convinced Zeigler participated in the killing based on his November 2007 interviews with authorities.

Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk asked Barry about a statement Zeigler made in his videotaped interview.

Zeigler said Trenor used his belt to discipline Sawyers, but that, “It was thin and shouldn’t have caused much damage,” Sistrunk said.

“What does that say to you?” Sistrunk asked.

“That he had knowledge of, was present and participated,” Barry said.

When Zeigler discussed the belt, he was speaking of discipline from another day, not the day Sawyers died, Dee McWilliams, one of Zeigler’s attorneys, said.

On the video, it is unclear whether Zeigler was talking about the day Sawyers died. The previous conversations were about events that happened before July, 25, 2007.

“That’s the hanging point?” McWilliams asked after Monday’s recess. “That’s a wild leap from what’s going on in the interview. It’s painfully obvious that discussion has nothing to do with the 25th. That’s why I asked if he maybe got too close to the investigation.”

Barry was a pallbearer at Sawyers’ burial in Ohio, but he testified he wasn’t too close to the case as to become impartial.

Zeigler admitted in a videotaped interview with authorities that he dumped Sawyers’ body into Galveston Bay.

On Oct. 29, 2007, a fisherman found Sawyers’ remains in a box that washed onto an island. Sheriff’s investigators called the child Baby Grace until they learned her identity 26 days later.

Zeigler’s trial began Oct. 27, and the state called 18 witnesses.

There is no evidence linking Zeigler to the killing, defense attorney’s said at Monday’s lunch break.

Sgt. Elias Cazares, of the sheriff’s office, testified Monday about the items collected as evidence. Among the items shown to the jury were Sawyers’ clothes. The jury also saw the contents of the blue plastic box, which contained sand and cement and was still dirty and partially covered with mud and other debris.

During searches of Zeigler and Trenor’s house in Spring and a storage business, authorities recovered, among other things, spiral notebooks.

One of the notebooks contained “Rules for Riley,” a list of nine disciplinary rules such as “being polite, behaves in public.” The rules state that Sawyers could have chocolate, cake or treats only as a reward.

One of Zeigler’s attorney’s, Neal Davis III, asked Cazares whether the rules were reasonable. Cazares said he found it odd the rules were written for a child that couldn’t read.

Davis suggested the rules were a set of guidelines the parents would follow in disciplining Riley.

The couple provided handwriting samples, which were sent to the FBI for analysis, Cazares said.

Another notebook recovered by investigators contained a suicide note, which testimony in Trenor’s trial indicated was penned by Zeigler. Prosecutors haven’t shown that note to the jury, and it hasn’t been entered as evidence. The note claims Trenor’s innocence.

Hiram Zeigler, Zeigler’s brother, testified to Trenor’s aloofness toward Sawyers and to her silence about the whereabouts of her child, even as news circulated of the discovery of a blonde girl with tennis shoes similar to the ones the Zeigler family bought the toddler.

Hiram Zeigler cursed and yelled at Trenor at her Spring home, leading a neighbor to call police about the disturbance. He said he kept asking, “Where’s Riley?”

“I became more and more nervous every time they said something about the blonde hair,” Hiram Zeigler testified. “The last thing they said was about the shoes. I just couldn’t believe that. White purple shoes, LED lights. Riley had those shoes.”

The state is expected to rest its case today, and the defense will have the opportunity to present witnesses.