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A Brazos County jury deliberated for about six hours Tuesday, but didn't reach a verdict in the case of a woman accused of causing brain injuries to a child in her unlicensed day care.
Jurors will continue their deliberations Wednesday morning.
Dana Rene Munyon could face up to 99 years in prison for the first-degree felony charge of injury to a child. Lawyers on both sides gave their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon after eight days of testimony.
Alexis Verzal was rushed from Munyon's home to the hospital on April 3, 2008, with bleeding in her brain. More than a year later, she is unable to walk, talk or use her right arm.
Prosecutors called multiple doctors over the eight days of testimony who said that Alexis appears to have suffered from significant trauma to the head. The main doctor who treated her injuries at Scott & White Hospital in Temple told jurors that she was either struck in the head, was caused to hit her head against an object or was thrown against an object.
The injuries she suffered, Dr. David Hardy said, were similar to those she would suffer if she were in a car accident at 30 mph and wasn't wearing a seat belt.
Prosecutors made no attempt to show what happened at Munyon's house, but said the fact that she was injured there while Munyon was caring for Alexis and seven other children showed that she was the cause of the injuries.
They said that Munyon was under marital and financial stress at the time of the incident and snapped on the young child, who was going through a phase where she cried loudly when she didn't get what she wanted.
"How serious her injuries were tell you about what happened that day," Assistant District Attorney Kara Comte said in her closing argument.
Munyon's defense attorney, Craig Greaves, disputed that argument, and asked jurors not to punish his client simply because they feel badly for Alexis and her parents.
"This is a tragedy," he said. "This young girl is not the same as she once was. There is no changing that. But just because that happened, doesn't mean that Ms. Munyon did something."
Munyon testified Tuesday that the child went limp in her arms while being placed on a blanket in Munyon's home.
Greaves has suggested to the jury that Alexis had bleeding in her brain for weeks or months before she collapsed at Munyon's home. He called Dr. John Galaznik, who testified that one image taken of Alexis' brain six days after she collapsed indicated that she had blood in her head that was more than two weeks old.
He also pointed to a head growth chart that indicated that Alexis' head grew at an abnormal rate in the months before she was rushed to the hospital. That, Galaznik said, indicated that she was already injured.
First Assistant District Attorney Shane Phelps questioned Galaznik's qualifications to make such a statement. Galaznik admitted to never having seen a CT scan or MRI performed and not being a specialist qualified to treat Alexis' injuries.
Galaznik works part-time in a student health clinic for the University of Alabama and was paid $3,000 by the defense to review the case.
All of the doctors who treated Alexis believe that she suffered her injuries around the time Munyon called 911, Phelps said.
More than two dozen people waited around the Brazos County Courthouse to hear the verdict until Judge Travis Bryan III sent everyone home after 9 p.m.
Friends of Alexis and her parents sat on the third floor chatting and eating pizza, while Munyon's family and friends waited on the second level.
Munyon waited outside the courthouse.
