MILAM COUNTY CASE GOES TO JURY

  

The trial of a Rockdale foster mother is set to go a jury this morning after closing arguments, and Judge John Youngblood told the jury he expects deliberations to begin Tuesday morning or early afternoon.

The Rockdale foster mother is charged with the July 2013 capital murder of a 2-year-old girl in her care told jurors Monday morning that she was scared and worried about the little girl when she lied to Rockdale police about how the child was injured.

The child, Alexadria Hill, then two, suffered a fatal head injury when her foster mother, mother Sherill Small, 55, claimed she accidently dropped the child on her head. Small claims that she lost grip of Alexandria while lifting her over Small’s head.

Prosecutors called Denise Gutierrez, a mother in Austin who testified that her 2-year-old daughter had received mysterious bruises while Sherill Small was babysitting in the fall of 2012.

Gutierrez also said that she brought her daughter, who is now four, back to Small to be watched in 2013, after she had noticed and questioned the bruising on her daughter’s arm.