(Ryan Crowe/FCR)
FLOYDADA – With sighs and shaking of heads, the family of Tara Hughes heard the verdict read in the 2019 wrongful death of 17-month-old Haizlee Rea Trevino Thursday afternoon at the Floyd County Courthouse.
Hughes was convicted of Intentionally or Knowingly Causing Serious Bodily Injury to a Child, a first degree felony that could result in a life sentence.
During the two day trial that began Wednesday in Judge Bill Smith’s 110th District Court, Floyd County District Attorney Wade Jackson called multiple medical professionals and law enforcement officers to the stand. Many commented on how bruised the little girl appeared when they first encountered her on the evening of July 16, 2019, beginning with Floydada EMS paramedics who were called to Hughes’ home along Third Street just after 11:00 p.m. that evening on a child suffering from heat stroke.
When paramedic Mike Reeves arrived, he told the court he found Trevino lying on the floor of the living room and not breathing. He began CPR and met fellow paramedic Lyndall Stapp outside where they rushed the girl in an ambulance to W.J. Mangold Memorial Hospital in Lockney, giving her continuous CPR during the trip. Reeves told the court Hughes had told him that Trevino and her 3-year-old brother “liked to play rough” and that she had not been eating or drinking. Reeves said the bruising he observed on the toddler was the “worst bruising I’d ever seen” outside of an automobile accident.
Stapp, who had not been in the courtroom for Reeves’ testimony concurred with the assessment. “The first thing that struck me was the bruising on her body,” adding that some bruises were the size of a quarter.
Later in the day Mangold nurse Gayla Marble also commented on the child’s appearance once Floydada EMS arrived, adding that in addition to the bruising she also noted that Trevino’s body was “cool to the touch” and that her color was pale. Marble said they continued to perform CPR on Trevino for 20 minutes until Dr. Robert Chizen called the time of death just before midnight.
Chizen, the longtime Mangold ER doctor now living in El Paso, was the first witness of the morning Thursday, and noted that Trevino was pale, cold and bruised. He noted no cardiac activity, leading him to discontinue CPR.
Dr. Thomas Parsons, a Lubbock-based forensic pathologist who performed Trevino’s autopsy on the day after the child’s death, stated Wednesday that in looking at the surface of her body there were “multiple contusions” and that based upon his initial observations there was a “significant” amount of swelling of Trevino’s head. Parsons said further examination found the girl suffered internal organ and spine damage. He ruled the cause of death as cerebral edema, or brain swelling, with blunt force injury.
Jackson asked Parsons if medical intervention could have saved the child’s life, with Parsons answering in the affirmative, if it had come early enough.
Both doctors were asked if based on their medical experience if the injuries would have caused significant pain for the girl. Chizen answered “Oh, yes.” Parsons was slightly more emphatic, “Oh, absolutely.”
Floyd County Sheriff Paul Raissez was one of three law enforcement officers called to the stand by Jackson, and the first to be called to the hospital shortly after Chizen pronounced Trevino dead. He too corroborated significant bruising of the girl. After taking photographic evidence he headed to Floydada to speak with Hughes and relatives at her home, where he said Hughes reported the bruising having come from her son jumping on his sister while both were on the bed they shared with Hughes. He told the court that Hughes’s timeline was that the following morning Trevino began throwing up shortly after breakfast and became lethargic throughout the day. After checking on the girl late in the evening of the 16th she found the girl unresponsive, ultimately calling 911.
Raissez said at different points in the conversation the son was described as both “having an evil laugh” and “just a crazy little boy.” He told the court when he asked Hughes if she checked on the girl after discovering the boy jumping on her, Hughes said she did, but she “was fine” and the girl had gone back to sleep. “Haizlee didn’t cry.”
Floyd County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ruben DeLeon also took the stand Wednesday, with Jackson showing the jury DeLeon’s body camera video from an interview he conducted with Hughes the afternoon following Trevino’s death. In the video Hughes again said the son was the cause of the bruising. DeLeon asked Hughes if the son was jumping on Trevino’s head. “I don’t trust (the boy) at all,” she said, later adding “I don’t know what I did wrong, I swear.” before reiterating that the boy had been the one to jump on Trevino’s chest and that the girl had also hit her head on the living room coffee table when she had been “throwing a fit.”
The video ended with DeLeon asking for the timeline, with Hughes explaining the vomiting before crying “I wouldn’t do that to her… I wouldn’t”
When DeLeon was called back to the stand Wednesday afternoon, he discussed a second interview he had with Hughes on July 25. In that interview DeLeon said Hughes could not explain the bruising found on the girl in hospital photos. When Jackson asked if Hughes blamed them on anyone DeLeon answered that she was still referencing her son or maybe EMS causing them while trying to help the girl.
Texas Department of Public Safety Special Agent Steve Davis was the last witness called by Jackson Thursday. Davis spoke with Hughes on July 31, and Jackson played the interview for the jury in two parts. In the interview Hughes repeatedly said the bruising “was not there” before EMS arrived.
Defense attorney Audie Reese gave his opening arguments Thursday afternoon, calling Haizlee Trevino’s death a terrible tragedy. He called Hughes’ cousin Kimber Bennett to the stand as Bennett had seen the family on July 15. She told the court she did not observe anything out of the ordinary with Trevino, that the girl was playing and laughing.
Reese also recalled Gayla Marble to the stand to clarify facts on her and others testimonies. He showed Marble pictures from both the hospital and autopsy, asking for details on bruising and how it compared to a diagram she had completed after Dr. Chizen had pronounced Trevino dead. When pressed about discrepancies on what she had been told versus what had been said in court, Marble told Reese she didn’t know the timeline of events from others, but had worked to gather her information quickly so the family that was at the hospital would have time with the girl’s body before it was taken for the autopsy.
Reese then asked to take a recess with Hughes, and informed the court following their return that Hughes had decided not to take the stand. Judge Bill Smith asked Hughes if that was her wish, and when she confirmed Reese announced he would rest his case.
Both sides were then given seven and a half minutes for closing arguments, with Jackson asking the jurors to consider “what the evidence states” and that “three whoppers were told” about the death of Haizlee Trevino. “A three-year-old is not capable of causing injury ‘stem to stern,'” he said before balking at the idea Reese had suggested that Trevino had not been in pain. “No pain? Doctors testified that is not true.” His final argument was that despite Hughes saying she never saw any bruising on her child, every witness called by the state had a similar story. “Everybody who came into contact with Haizlee says they’ve never seen more bruising!”
Jackson’s voice broke as he made his final statement asking for conviction. “Someone in that house hurt that child, Tara Hughes watched Haizlee Trevino cry and die because she did not want CPS investigating.”
Reese started by admitting this was “an intense case to be a part of,” before saying that in hindsight this was a tragedy. “Tragedies happen every day, but not all bring criminal charges. You might think she should have known, but that’s not what we’re discussing.”
He asked what evidence had been presented showing Hughes had beaten her child, and that even then that was not what the case was about. “We are here if Tara knew about those injuries, knew there was a risk.”
He added that in spite of ‘armchair quarterbacking’ the death “the only person who knows is Tara,” and that in the end a hard decision had to be made, but that it had to be made “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The jury received their instructions, deliberating for 40 minutes before returning their guilty verdict Thursday afternoon. According to Texas law the charge carries five to 99 years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility. Sentencing will begin Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. in Judge Smith’s courtroom.
