Deontray Flanagan was accused of taking his 2-year-old daughter out of daycare and strangling the child to dying whereas FaceTiming her mother and grandfather … all amid a high-speed chase with police.
Drama broke out merely exterior the courtroom ahead of the choice throughout the trial of 26-year-old Deontray Flanagan in Houston, charged with strangling his 2-year-old daughter Zevaya to dying whereas FaceTiming her mother and grandfather.
The gorgeous incident occurred all through a break in testimony on the Harris County Family Regulation Coronary heart when Flanagan was strolling by CBS affiliate KHOU’s data digicam. Consistent with the data outlet, the defendant lunged on the digicam, knocking every it and their photojournalist to the underside.
Flanagan was shortly tackled and handcuffed by Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies. The station tales he was not cuffed throughout the hallway sooner than the assault, nevertheless his ankles had been shackled.
Consistent with the Houston Chronicle, the gorgeous assault was immediately preceded by the arrival in courtroom of the sufferer’s mother Kairsten Watson’s new boyfriend. This abruptly launched the proceedings to a halt as Flanagan reportedly spoke out to cope with him.
Watson shifting on from her relationship with Flanagan was argued as a result of the prime motivating challenge throughout the dying of their daughter. Sooner than the jury decided his future, Flanagan instructed them that he took a punishment directed at Watson for shifting on from their relationship too far.
After the three-day trial accomplished on Friday, jurors deliberated for a few hours, per KHOU, sooner than returning their verdict. Flanagan was convicted of capital murder. The choice robotically sentences Flanagan to life with out the potential for parole, per the Houston Chronicle.
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Zevaya’s Mother Helplessly Watches Her Demise
One in all many key gadgets of proof launched throughout the trial was video of the sufferer’s mother in the back of a police cruiser on March 20, 2023, watching her daughter’s dying on a FaceTime identify as police tried to influence Flanagan to stop.
“Please stop – that’s our daughter!” screamed Kairsten Watson as Deontray could very properly be seen choking and beating Zevaya throughout the passenger seat of his Chevrolet Camaro, in accordance with the Houston Chronicle.
Watson testified to how helpless she felt in that second, telling jurors, “There was nothing I would do about it.”
Inside the video, she could very properly be seen banging on the deputy’s window and telling Flanagan she would do one thing he wanted, nevertheless she said she already knew it was too late, Flanagan was killing their daughter. She she said she felt trapped and unable to protect her teen.
In an interview with Fox affiliate KRIV throughout the days after her daughter’s murder, Watson said that when the choice started, her daughter’s “face was merely coated in blood. He hit her with one factor truly exhausting, after which he known as me on FaceTime and he confirmed me.”
“He choked her on FaceTime,” she continued. “I said, ‘Tray stop. That’s your daughter. Stop. She loves you.’ His precise phrases had been, ‘You solely love that man. You in all probability did this to her.”
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Flanagan Assaults Ex, Triggers Police Chase
In courtroom, Watson testified that she not at all thought her ex, who was present for his daughter’s starting, would take his anger that far, per the Houston Chronicle.
Consistent with her testimony in courtroom, Flanagan started the events that may result in tragedy when he took his 2-year-old daughter out of daycare with out permission at spherical 10 a.m. on March 20, 2023.
He then took the child with him to Walmart, the place Watson labored, and confronted his ex, making threats and demanding her phone and passcodes because of he was happy she was talking with totally different males.
“Principally threatening to hurt the child if she didn’t flip these objects over,” a spokesperson for the Houston Police Division said at a press conference after his preliminary arrest.
“She made an attempt to try and rescue her daughter from his stronghold. Nonetheless she was unable to take motion,” the spokesperson continued. “At the moment, we’re instructed, [Flanagan] struck her in all probability a number of cases to the face and continued to flee the scenario.”
Consistent with Watson, he grabbed her phone, pushed her away and drove off. Her identify to police triggered what shortly turned a 30-mile prolonged high-speech chase with police, after police had been able to observe thought of certainly one of their telephones, and Watson in the back of thought of certainly one of their cruisers.
By way of the 45-minute chase, Flanagan reportedly drove in direction of guests and struck totally different vehicles, tossing his youthful daughter, who was not buckled in, regarding the entrance seat. All by means of, he repeatedly contacted Watson by way of FaceTime and demanded the passcode to her phone, which she refused to disclose to him.
Lastly, in desperation and fear for her child’s life, she relented and instructed him she would inform him one thing, nevertheless by that point, she instructed jurors, she knew it was too late and her daughter was going to be killed.
“I do know in her ideas she possibly was much like, ‘What did I do?’” Watson instructed KHOU after Flanagan’s arrest in 2023. “‘Why are you doing this to me for? Like I such as you, why are you hurting me?’”
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Watson’s father, Curtis, was moreover on these calls, and shared with the media on the time that he’d initially hoped for a peaceful resolution. “Nonetheless then he confirmed me the lifeless corpse of my granddaughter,” he said. “I wouldn’t need that on anyone. To should bear that type of anguish and ache.”
After Flanagan’s automotive was stopped, it was nonetheless 20 further minutes in a standoff with Flanagan sooner than the SWAT group was able to switch in and subdue him.
Zevaya required CPR on the scene and was transported to a close-by hospital by means of helicopter, in accordance with authorities, nevertheless she was pronounced lifeless on arrival. A medical professional testified she died of blunt energy trauma to the head and neck compressions.
“You’ll have taken her remaining breath, nevertheless you cannot kill her spirit, her memory, or her title,” said Curtis in courtroom on Friday. He moreover revealed that Zevaya was buried alongside along with her mother’s surname.
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