The Galveston County Daily News

Baby Grace’s stepfather, in a suicide note, claimed his wife was innocent and that he was guilty of past sins, according to testimony in his capital murder trial Tuesday.

After five days of testimony in the death of Baby Grace, prosecutors Tuesday rested their case against Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 26, who is accused of the July 25, 2007, killing of his 2-year-old stepdaughter, Riley Ann Sawyers.

The state’s final day of testimony included evidence from an FBI handwriting expert, who concluded Zeigler wrote a suicide note.

The note says Zeigler’s wife, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, 21, was innocent and that Zeigler was guilty of past sins.

Zeigler wrote the note and took several pills one week before his arrest in November 2007.

Zeigler’s note, however, doesn’t say what he is guilty of or what his wife is innocent of.

His lawyers said the letter was not an admission of guilt in Sawyers’ death and was an attempt to protect his wife.

Sawyers died after a daylong disciplinary session, in which her skull was fractured three times, according to court testimony.

Sawyers’ body was stored for weeks at the couple’s home in Spring.

Zeigler, in a videotaped interview with authorities, admitted dumping Sawyers’ body in Galveston Bay.

A fisherman found Sawyers on Oct. 29, 2007, in a box washed onto an island. Authorities called the little girl Baby Grace until they learned her identity 26 days later.

Suicide Notes

FBI Special Agent Gabriel Watts, a forensic document examiner, was among five witnesses called Tuesday to testify for the state. Two suicide notes were lifted from impressions on underlying pages of a notebook, Watts said. Investigators found the notebook in the couple’s bed.

The whereabouts of the original suicide notes are not known, but Watts lifted impressions from underlying pages of the notebook using technology at an FBI lab, he testified.

Watts said Zeigler and Trenor wrote separate notes. He was able to determine that by comparing known handwriting samples, he said.

‘Guilt For Past Sins’

Watts displayed the notes on a large screen for the jury in Judge David Garner’s 10th District Court.

“I take my own life because of guilt for past sins … which I have confessed before I took my life,” Zeigler wrote. “My wife Kimberly Zeigler is innocent … lived in fear with because of what I would do to her.”

Some words were difficult, if not impossible to read, because of the difficulty of lifting impressions from underlying pages.

Zeigler also wrote that his family could “go burn in hell for their stress they have caused, so I … take my own life.”

The FBI also lifted Trenor’s suicide note from the pages of the notebook, but the defense contends she made no attempt on her life. “My heart is black dead,” Trenor wrote. “There is nothing left. I can’t live with myself after Riley.”

Watts testified that the couple wrote “Rules for Riley” together. The series of nine disciplinary measures were to teach the toddler to be polite, pick up her toys and to behave in public.

Zeigler’s suicide note is another example of him trying to protect Trenor, Neal Davis III, one of Zeigler’s attorney’s, said.

‘Doesn’t Say He’s Guilty’

Davis didn’t cross examine Watts, but is expected to question him when the defense presents witnesses, Dee McWilliams, another of Zeigler’s attorneys, said.

“If the state wants to hang its hat on that as a confession to the crime, all you have to do is just read it,” McWilliams said during a break in the trial. “It doesn’t say he’s guilty of killing Riley.”

Prosecutor Kayla Allen and Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk called five witnesses Tuesday before resting their case, which began Oct. 27 with jury selection.

DNA Tests On Belts

Rhonda Craig, a forensic DNA examiner, testified she could find none of Trenor’s or Sawyers’ DNA on Zeigler’s three belts, submitted as evidence by the defense.

Minh Lu, a computer forensic examiner, testified to making copies from computers collected during the investigation.

FBI Special Agent Ben Stone followed with testimony of what he found on those computers, including e-mails and Web searches.

Stone found traces of a letter, which Trenor typed, to lead people to believe Ohio child protective services took Sawyers amid a custody dispute. Stone testified someone went to great lengths to try to erase the letter from the computer’s hard drive.

Stone retrieved e-mails Zeigler sent his boss, saying he was calling in sick the day Sawyer’s died.

One computer contained Internet searches from Aug. 12, 2007, of Houston landfills, weigh stations, maps of the Houston-Galveston area and of Galveston Bay.

‘Evidence Of Injury’

Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, Galveston County chief medical examiner, concluded the state’s case with testimony of Sawyers’ painful death and results from the autopsy.

Trenor was convicted Feb. 2 of capital murder in her daughter’s death. In her videotaped interview with sheriff’s investigators, Trenor described how Riley went cold in her arms.

Trenor’s video wasn’t admissible in Zeigler’s trial.

Pustilnik described how painful Sawyers’ injuries must have been. Sawyers could have been alive for several minutes or hours before dying of blunt force trauma, Pustilnik said.

The only injuries found on Sawyers’ body were the three skull fractures and the fracture of her odontoid process, a bone also called the dens that allows the head to rotate without falling off the backbone.

The defense is expected to call its first witness today. The trial was expected to last two weeks.