State vs Ashley Schwarz: Day Three

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - Day three of the Ashley Schwarz vs The State of Texas was the most emotional day of the trial so far.

For the first time in three years, the sister of Jaylin Schwarz saw Ashley Schwarz.

That’s because back on Saturday, August 29th, 2020 after the death of Jaylin Schwarz the sister was removed from the Schwarz residence where over the next several weeks Ashley would only see the sister two more times.

What started as questions to make the sister feel comfortable, like what’s your name, how old are you and where do you live, turned into what happened on August 29 of 2020.

For the sister August 29 of 2020 started like any normal Saturday, both girls played with their toys and ate breakfast.

But after that, according to the sister, she told the jury that Ashley Schwarz told the two girls to go outside on the trampoline as punishment.

For the sister, the trampoline wasn’t always fun. It was a place where they were sometimes punished.

On the 29th, Jaylins sister remembers that it wasn’t a fun morning and that she and her sister were told to jump until Ashley said to come back in.

According to the sister, she thinks that they drank water but if they did, it wasn’t much. She thinks that they went outside mid-morning and were jumping for over 3 hours.

For those three hours, the sister says she and Jaylin had jumped for the majority of the entire time but did take breaks and only had a very little amount of water.

At one point the sister couldn’t get in because the door was locked but later was able to come in for water because she jumped for her amount of time.

The sister would later go back out and says her final words to Jaylin “The sooner you jump the sooner you can come in for water”.

After talking about the sister’s experience on August 29th the prosecution would go into what living with the Schwarz was like.

At this time the sister would tell the jury that certain punishments were common like jumping on the trampoline, carrying weights up and down hallways, and being spanked on the butt.

But did also say not everything with Ashley and Daniel was bad.

It was at this point the defense would start asking their questions to the sister.

To start, the defense would show a series of pictures to the sister to show her all the memories the Schwarz and the two girls had over the time they were together.

During their time with Ashley and Daniel, the girls were able to pick the theme to their rooms and both have their room which means a lot to the girls.

The sister would also say that writing lines was not always a punishment, it was sometimes for school too.

But the sister would also go on to say while on the stand that sometimes punishment was to pick up dog poop barehanded which later when Ashley Schwarz testified said that happened one time and it was because the girls didn’t know where the poop bags were. They also didn’t know they had privileges to the fridge and sometimes their only means of the day was breakfast.

At this time neither the defense nor the prosecutors had any more questions for the sister and they would move on to Jessica Wiseman who was mentioned on Day 2 of the trial by Sgt Sam Chavez where those two met for the first time during the interview at Harmony Homes with Jaylin’s sister.

During Wiseman’s testimony with the prosecution the jury would learn about her job which is with Child Protection Services which she has been with for the last seven years her job is to look at abuse and neglect cases and has looked at over 100 cases in her life.

On the day of Jaylins death, Wiseman was on call in the event of something like what happened to Jaylin.

Under CPS protocol, Wiseman had to bring in Jaylin’s sister and make sure everything was ok at that time saw bruises on the sister on her butt from spankings which were later revealed to have been a paddle.

Wiseman then took photos of the bruises which were done at Harmony Homes.

That same day that Wiseman and the sister were together, Wiseman returned to the Schwarz residence where she would speak with Ashley and Daniel that night just after 9 pm.

That night Wiseman would take pictures of the home after the sister said what had happened to her and Jaylin.

It was at this point the defense would ask questions Wiseman where according to the defense Wiseman would say on the visit that evening Wiseman was aggressive and threatened to pin Jaylins death on Ashley and Daniel.

It was at this point that a decision had to be made, should Ashley Schwarz take the stand and testify under oath or not?

It was decided that Ashley Schwarz would take the stand and the defense then called her to the stand.

Ashley recounted what happened the day Jaylin died.

She testified that the girls ate pigs in a blanket for breakfast.

She then continued to claim that Jaylin went outside to play while her younger sister stayed inside to write lines because she “thought” that she was still in trouble from the night before but eventually, she went out and joined her sister.

Ashley also claimed that the girls had taken their water bottles outside with them, she knew this because they were not in the fridge.

A few hours had passed and just before lunch the girls according to Ashley came inside to either use the bathroom or get more water.

At lunch, Ashley claims she provided the girls with a peanut butter sandwich and juice.

According to Ashley “Jaylin said she was not hungry at lunch but also hot but insisted she wanted to play more outside.”

Moments later Jaylin went outside again.

Ashley says their last encounter was seeing Jaylin through a window as Jaylin flashed an “I love you” hand sign.

She says she does not recall how much time had passed between that encounter and when Daniel Schwarz carried an unconscious Jaylin inside.

Ashley told the jury that once this trial is over she and Daniel plan on leaving Odessa, claiming it is hard to live in the home where Jaylin died.

Following the conclusion of Ashley’s testimony the defense asked the charges of Capital Murder be dropped. This motion was denied.

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