KYLE, Texas (KXAN) — Testimony continued Thursday in what is expected to be a roughly two-week-long trial in Hays County to determine if Stevie Dwayne Williams killed his two-year-old son, Mason. The young boy’s mother, Dazrine Ruth Chagoya-Williams, is also facing capital murder charges.
On Thursday morning the jury in Stevie’s case heard from two of Dazrine’s half-sisters, Amanda Delcueto and Lindsay Ortiz.
Delcueto temporarily took custody of Mason after he was removed from his parents’ by child protective services early in 2017 after signs of physical trauma were found.
After abiding by CPS’ reunification process, Stevie and Dazrine had Mason returned to them, a former CPS caseworker testified. That reunification happened less than a year before Mason died in July of 2018.
In the afternoon Thursday, the jury heard from other family members of the couple including Dazrine’s father and Stevie’s mother and grandmother. Those family members were asked to testify to whether or not they had previously seen bruising on the boy.
Before the jury was allowed to go home Thursday night, they also briefly heard from a detective with the Kyle Police Department and the doctor who did Mason’s autopsy.
Dr. Suzanna Dana walked the jury through several photos of Mason’s body taken during the autopsy. She told the jury that her determination was that Mason’s chest had been compressed hard enough to stop oxygen from flowing to the brain and other parts of the body, which is what caused his death.
This is the second day of the trial, not including jury selection. During opening remarks Wednesday, the state laid out a roadmap for jurors of what they would be seeing and hearing over the next two weeks including testimony from first responders, Williams’ family and their family doctor.
Williams’ attorney started the trial by suggesting that Williams’ wife was the person behind the boy’s death.
After opening comments, jurors first heard from the 911 dispatcher who took the call from Dazrine on the Fourth of July, the day the boy was found dead. The recording of that call was played in court.
“My son, my son didn’t wake up from his nap,” Dazrine can be heard saying in that recording. “He, we, we can’t get him up.
Jurors also heard from several first responders Wednesday and watched body camera footage showing a police officer’s arrival on scene and interaction with the couple.
Stevie and his wife, Dazrine, are both facing capital murder charges in the death of their son, Mason, who died in Kyle in July 2018.
Kyle police say when they responded to the family’s home in the 300 block of Marquitos Drive on July 4, 2018, they found the toddler in the front hall, not breathing. Police said officers saw “bruising on his left and right rib area, bruising on his back and bruising on his forehead.”
At the time, Dazrine told officers that when Stevie went into the child’s room, he wasn’t alive anymore. Her “only explanation was ‘something (not someone) attacked him or something,’” an affidavit said. Stevie had told police that “something not worldly” had hurt the child, stating that it could be “demons, evil,” the affidavit said.
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