A Houston man who strangled his two-year-old daughter while Facetiming the girl's mother and grandfather was convicted of capital murder.
Deontray Flanagan was convicted of the March 2023 murder of his daughter, Zevaya, KHOU-11 reported. Flanagan committed the slaying during a 45-minute police chase. Jurors saw video of the slaying during which the girl's mother, Kairsten Watson, begged him to stop hurting the little girl.
"I know in her mind she probably was just like, 'What did I do?' Watson told KHOU 11 in 2023. "'Why are you doing this to me? Like, I love you, why are you hurting me?'"
Curtis Watson, the girl's grandfather, said the family tried to reason with Flanagan. "But then he showed me the lifeless corpse of my granddaughter," KHOU-11 reported Watson said. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone. To have to go through that type of anguish and pain."
Zevaya wasn't in a car seat or buckled in during the police chase, and defense attorney's attempted to argue that she died from injuries she sustained while being thrown about the car.
Regardless, jurors took just a few hours to convict Flanagan.
"I know in her mind she probably was just like, 'What did I do?' Watson told KHOU 11 in 2023. "'Why are you doing this to me? Like, I love you, why are you hurting me?'"
During the court proceedings, there was a break in the proceedings. As Flanagan walked down a hallway he lunged at a KHOU-11 camera person but was then tackled by sheriff's deputies.
