"Baby Grace" beaten to death for failing to address stepfather as "Sir"

[derby378]

:wtf:

Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 24, of Spring stayed home from work July 24 to make sure that Trenor, his wife of less than two months, followed his orders to whip Riley with a belt, not by hand, attorney Tommy Stickler Jr. said.

Zeigler wanted his wife to spank Riley with a belt when she failed to say such things as "please" and "yes sir" or "no sir," Stickler said. Zeigler didn't believe Trenor was doing it, however, because Riley's behavior wasn't changing.

Somehow the whipping spiraled into holding Riley's head under water in a bathtub, Zeigler throwing her onto a tile floor, and her face being pushed into a pillow and a couch, according to a statement Trenor gave to investigators on Saturday.

"It got way out of control," Stickler said. "It wasn't his plan to beat her so bad she would die. It was his plan to use the belt to beat her to get her to do things the way he wanted."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5334351.html

This Ziegler apparently is nothing more than a soulless control freak. I think he deserves nothing less than the full penalty of law that can be meted against him.

[Joanne98]

1. I'm for the death penalty on this one!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Sickening, isn't it?

[LeftyMom]

3. I wish could say I was surprised, but a girl I went to school with was beat to death

by her stepfather for forgetting her keys. :cry:

Broken people do some crazy shit.

[derby378]

8. Broken, hell...!

The man made a conscious decision to beat his daughter to death for forgetting her keys. Just as I'm sure Ziegler made the decision to beat and torture Riley to death.

Here in Dallas, we had this one guy a few years back whose daughter dropped her coat on the floor. As punishment, he forced her to drink a whole gallon of water. Now, I've tried downing a whole liter of water or soda in one sitting when I was younger and not so smart, but I didn't feel so good for a while afterwards for two reasons: (1) your stomach is telling you "WTF were you thinking?", and (2) that much fluid introduced into your system all at once will often throw your electrolytes seriously out of whack for a short time. That little girl, however, died of massive brain swelling. Her father, last I heard, is now serving a life sentence for her murder.

[LeftyMom]

11. Oh, I'm not excusing anybody,

Only saying that a whole lot of shit has to go deeply wrong with somebody before they get to that point, and as a society we really need to get better at seeing the warning signs before somebody drops their daughter in the ocean or a ditch. Because we can punish these people to our heart's content, but it's not going to do shit for that little girl, and noticing something was f'd up in mother and stepfather's thinking before they ever met might have saved her.

We don't spend the barest fraction on mental health that we spend on punishment, and until that changes, nothing will change. That's what I'm saying.

[derby378]

17. Excellent point - the bomb scare at Hillary's NH office backs you up

The would-be bomber was complaining about the lack of mental health care, which has dogged this nation ever since Reagan turned the mentally ill out of the hospitals and onto the streets.

We do need better mental health care in this nation in order to help build better citizens, better parents, and (one can hope) better politicians.

My heart goes out to Riley's real father and his family.

[tuckessee]

4. Everyday I thank my Lucky Stars that I had the parents I had.

I can not fathom such things happening to a child.

[TwilightGardener]

5. These people need to be spayed and neutered. They have no business

reproducing any more children.

edit--aside from being locked up for life, of course.

[judaspriestess]

10. Agreed

spaying and neutering of stupid humans is high on my list of ways to make this world a better place.

[derby378]

13. With or without anesthesia?

Forgive me - I'm not in a very gentle mood right now.

[TwilightGardener]

14. What do you think?

:evilgrin:

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. Ziegler didn't reproduce. He killed someone else's child.

He was assisted in this by Trenor, the girl's mom.

Dad lives in Ohio.

[LisaL]

35. Well, considering the woman is said to be pregnant, Ziegler is

reproducing as of now.

[fishnfla]

6. Oh boy the mom is pregnant too

how were they able to keep the child's real father from knowing she was dead for so long?

[Sadie4629]

22. Maybe he wasn't all that interested in her either

Sad, but true. Maybe this poor little kid didn't have any parents who loved her enough.

[LisaL]

25. He and the mother apparently met when they both were 16.

So, presumably he is only 19 years old himself.
He also already has another child.

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. The child and her mom lived with dad in the dad's parents home

She took the child to Texas to live with the stepdad.

I find it intriguing how selective our aversion to "blaming the victim" is.

[LisaL]

24. The biological father lives in OH.

The mother moved to Texas.

[tammywammy]

7. This case gets more twisted every day

That poor innocent child. The suffering she had.

[kestrel91316]

9. Judge kestrel sez: Ziegler - death penalty by slow torture.

Trenor - life in prison after getting tubes tied to ensure no prison babies happen

[Kansas Wyatt]

27. I second that...

People have got to understand, that sometimes, the punishment should fit the crime.

[deutsey]

12. That poor child. n/t

[seemslikeadream]

15. It doesn't work when you beat a country to death either

georgie

[crikkett]

16. The mother

WTF is wrong w/ HER?????

Her life is ruined.

[derby378]

19. She chose Ziegler over her own daughter, THAT'S what's wrong with her

I don't care if he made a truckload of cash and was excellent in bed. You DO NOT let a man like that treat your daughter the way Ziegler did.

[lumberjack_jeff]

28. She is no less a criminal than the stepdad.

She participated in killing her child then covered up her crime. She picked wrong.

[crikkett]

18. BTW the child was 2. its mother is 19.

[cali]

20. No. I think you're wrong about the "control freak" label

my guess is he's a sexual sadist and got off on beating this poor baby. It's also likely that he was abused.

[derby378]

21. Sure, there could be a sick sexual component...

...there's a big "Sir/Mistress" component in many S&M circles, sure. But that also depends on control on a psychological level.

I know some Southerners who will tell me that the whole "Sir" thing is simply their way of showing a little Southern respect. But it seems more genuine when it comes from someone who just grew up in a culture like that instead of a child who fears he or she will be disciplined if they forget to end their sentence with an honorific.

Besides, I'm Quaker - I never use "Sir" or "Ma'am" on anyone, including judges, and I feel a little uncomfortable when anyone addresses me as "Sir." We tend to be fiercely egalitarian.

[LisaL]

23. This is just the saddest story.

The child was absolutely adorable.

[BoneDaddy]

26. This man abdicated his humanity

and should never have an opportunity to do this again.

[Prefer]

29. He was just trying to be Christian

- spare the rod, spoil the child.

is that not the driving factor here?

[Sadie4629]

33. I didn't know he is a Christian

Got any links to back that up??

[Kazak]

30. Horrible!

What is wrong with people?!?

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. Can you imagine how much it would suck...

to have your live-in girlfriend dissappear your child to a distant state, only to find out that she had killed her?