GALVESTON -- A couple accused of killing the woman's 2-year-old girl appeared playful and happy at a picnic less than two weeks after the toddler's death, a witness testified Friday in the mother's trial.
Prosecutors have argued that Kimberly Dawn Trenor and Royce Clyde Zeigler II are responsible for Riley's death, saying they beat her, dunked her head in cold bath water and threw her onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull during a daylong discipline session designed to teach her proper manners. Zeigler, who will be tried later, is also charged with capital murder in the girl's 2007 death.
Angelica Zenon worked with Zeigler at Emerson Process Management offices in Stafford, a suburb of Houston. She testified Friday that Trenor and Zeigler seemed happy and playful at the picnic.
"At any time, did these two people look like they were mourning the loss of a 2-year-old child?" Assistant Galveston County District Attorney Kayla Allen asked.
"No," Zenon answered, according to a report on the Houston Chronicle's Web site.
Zenon took photos at the picnic that showed Trenor smiling and playfully pulling Zeigler's baseball cap over his face. Allen showed the pictures to the jury Friday.
Zenon said she heard Zeigler speak on the phone to Trenor as many as five times a day.
"Once, he screamed at her for refusing to allow his mother in the house," Zenon said. "It didn't feel like he had control over her, because he kept on and on."
Trenor's defense team has argued that she was under Zeigler's control.
Riley was dubbed "Baby Grace" while investigators worked to identify her decomposed remains.
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