GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A Texas jury has convicted a man for the 2007 beating death of his 2-year-old stepdaughter whose battered body was found in a container floating in Galveston Bay.
Jurors deliberated for 4 1/2 hours Friday before convicting Royce Clyde Zeigler II of capital murder. He receives an automatic life sentence since prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty.
Zeigler and his wife, Kimberly Trenor, were accused of killing Riley Ann Sawyers during a discipline session that spun out of control. Trenor was the child's mother. She was convicted of capital murder in February and also received an automatic life sentence.
The child was known as "Baby Grace" until relatives in Ohio identified her as Riley Ann Sawyers.
