One of the two people accused of killing a three-year-old from Waynesboro has been found guilty. The other is still awaiting trial. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
Travis Ryan Brown was convicted of the aggravated murder of three-year-old Khaleesi Hope Cuthriell, and child abuse resulting in serious injury, on Wednesday after a three-day trial in Augusta County. Aggravated murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Virginia.
Child Protective Services placed Khaleesi in the care of Candi Jo Royer in October of 2020, but did not conduct any follow-up visits, as The News Leader reported. Royer and Brown lived together in a house outside of Waynesboro owned by his family.
The Commonwealth's evidence included disturbing photos and videos of Khaleesi taken by Royer, which show the toddler losing weight, being verbally taunted, losing all of her hair, and becoming covered in bruises, circular burn marks, and other wounds, until she was presumably killed in January 2021. In the house, investigators found Khaleesi's blood both on a baseboard and six feet high up on a wall. Her bedroom door knob was oriented so it could be locked from the outside.
Other evidence included text and social media messages between Brown and Royer. In one, Royer threatens to tell her father about Khaleesi, and Brown responds with a reference to killing himself. In another, she says, "unless you want a murder charge, I'd shut up." He responds, "I took care of my back. Did you take care of yours?"
The court also played a recording of Brown's interview with law enforcement in Pennsylvania, where he and Royer were captured in September 2021. In it, he at first claims that CPS took Khaleesi. Later, he claims that she hit her own head on a door frame and died. Her body has never been found.
Brown did not take the stand during the trial, and his attorney, Dana Cormier, did not call any witnesses for the defense. Cormier presented Khaleesi's death as the result of Royer's actions alone. In his closing argument, Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Martin explained that one of the elements of an aggravated murder charge is a crime that was willful, deliberate, and premeditated.
"You don't accidentally torture someone to death," he said.
Royer's trial is scheduled to begin on October 16th.
