Parents Face Capital Murder Charges in Baby Grace Case

Death penalty looms for Texas pair
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2007 3:40 AM CST
Parents Face Capital Murder Charges in Baby Grace Case
Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, of Spring , Texas is shown in this undated booking photo released by the Galveston County Sheriff's office. Zeigler is the step father of Riley Ann Sawyers, 4, known as Baby Grace , a young girl found in a storage box on an island off of Galveston, Texas. Zeigler II, 24,...   (Associated Press)

A grand jury took just three minutes to decide to bring capital murder charges against a Texas couple in the death of their 2-year-old daughter, the Houston Chronicle reports. The child's mother has admitted that the child, dubbed Baby Grace, died after she and her husband beat the little girl. Baby Grace's body was found stuffed in a plastic cooler in Galveston Bay months later.

The pair had originally been charged with injury to a child. Under the new, upgraded charges, prosecutors will be able to seek the death penalty. "I'm comfortable with the indictment as it stands now," said the child's paternal grandmother. "She's not injured; she's dead." The mother's lawyer said she had not meant to kill her child. (More Baby Grace stories.)

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