Kraig Jenkins (4) R.I.P.

Defendant admits restraining dead child

by Chris Paschenko / The Daily News

January 16, 2010 at 2:09 PM
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JAMAICA BEACH — Jurors heard Friday about four hours of videotaped statements of a capital murder defendant telling authorities he didn’t know what caused the death of a child.

Daniel James Gray, 56, is accused in the Dec. 22, 2005, beating and asphyxiation of his ex-wife’s 4-year-old grandson, Kraig Jenkins, at the couple’s Jamaica Beach apartment.

Barbara Bawarsky, 48, testified against Gray, implicating him in Kraig’s death. Bawarsky admitted having sex and cooking methamphetamines in the apartment while the boy was wrapped in bed sheets and confined in a hope chest.

Bawarsky accepted a deal of 40 years in prison in exchange for her guilty plea.

Gray was asleep in another room when Kraig died, and Bawarsky’s testimony was filled with inconsistencies, Gray’s defense said.

Gray told Galveston County Sheriff’s Office investigators in December 2005 interviews about finding Kraig’s lifeless body, but he said he didn’t know what killed the boy.

Bawarsky testified the couple often wrapped Kraig in sheets, placed socks in his mouth and held him under a cold shower during disciplinary sessions, some of which Bawarsky videotaped.

“If he goes into temper fits, we put him in the shower,” Gray said in a Dec. 22 interview with investigators.

An investigator asked whether Gray could think of anything that accidentally caused the boy’s death.

“Most of the bumps on Kraig’s head are the bumps he put on his head,” Gray told investigator Gary Echols, noting Kraig often banged his head on the apartment’s drywall.

“The cuts and knots on his head are from his head banging,” Echols asked.

“Sometimes he would just stand in the corner and just go bam, bam,” Gray said.

Gray learned in a later interview the medical examiner ruled that Kraig’s death wasn’t from natural causes.

“I’ve thought about it and hate to think anything I did that evening contributed to the child’s death,” Gray said.

“I did restrain the child that evening when he started thrashing around,” Gray said.

Gray told investigators Kraig often wrapped himself in sheets.

“The only thing that comes to me is the way Kraig bundled himself up in covers,” Gray said. “I don’t know if that would cause him to suffocate.”

Testimony was expected to continue Tuesday in Judge Wayne J. Mallia’s 405th District Court in Galveston.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Defendant-admits-restraining-dead-child-81888682.html

Gray guilty of capital murder in boy’s death
By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News
Published January 23, 2010

JAMAICA BEACH — The slaying of a boy no one wanted, and the “terror” the 4-year-old suffered while suffocating in his grandmother’s hope chest resulted Friday in a capital murder conviction.

Daniel James Gray, 56, was convicted in the Dec. 22, 2005, death of Kraig Jenkins. The jury of 10 women and two men deliberated nearly seven hours after hearing nine days of testimony.

Before reaching the verdict, the jury in Judge Wayne J. Mallia’s 405th District Court in Galveston asked the court to read back testimony of Michael Hudson, who lived above Gray and his ex-wife, Barbara Bawarsky.

Bawarsky, Kraig’s grandmother, was awarded custody by the state on grounds of parental neglect, according to court testimony. Bawarsky wanted to return Kraig to his mother. Bawarsky pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder in her grandson’s death and testified against Gray.

Hudson frequently overheard vulgarities coming from the couple’s Jamaica Beach apartment, which Bawarsky testified she used to cook methamphetamines.

The jury asked the court to read transcripts of Hudson’s Jan. 13 testimony, in which prosecutor Bill Reed asked him if he heard any specific conversations between Gray and Kraig.

“’I’m going to throw your little ass in the closet,’” Hudson testified he heard Gray yell three times.

Boy Wrapped In Sheets

Bawarsky testified she and Gray frequently restrained Kraig with sheets and stuffed socks in his mouth during what the couple called disciplinary sessions. Bawarsky videotaped some of those sessions.

Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Pustilnik testified Kraig died of chronic child abuse, blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.

Pustilnik, who watched about 10 minutes of Bawarsky’s video, which showed Gray placing his knee on Kraig to restrain him, said the boy’s treatment was psychological horror. Kraig also likely suffered panic and terror from being unable to breathe, Pustilnik testified.

Bawarsky testified they found Kraig dead after wrapping him in a sheet, putting a mesh bag over his head and placing him in a hope chest. Bawarsky thought Kraig would be safe in the chest while the couple had sex, she testified.

Kraig was found unresponsive, and the couple attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation before calling 911.

Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk, in his closing statements, accused the couple of trying to cover up the crime by washing the sheets in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Unanimous Verdict

Attorneys Tom Stickler and Jimmy Phillips Jr., in their defense of Gray, claimed their client was asleep in another room at the time of Kraig’s death.

The jury was unanimously convinced of Gray’s guilt and found he was a party to the slaying.

“For the jury, the fact that he was at the apartment at the time of Kraig’s death, that was probably enough,” Stickler said.

Gray’s videotaped statements to investigators, which were played for the jury, likely gave the jury the impression he was hiding something or trying to protect his ex-wife, Stickler said.

Gray’s conviction carries an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/150670