Ashley Schwarz vs The State of Texas: Day Four

ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) - It was day four and the final day for Ashley Schwarz vs The State of Texas for the death of Jaylin Schwarz.

On the final day of the trial, the defense would start by bringing three character witnesses to the stand to speak about what they saw from Ashley and Daniel Schwarz and their time with the two girls.

All three character witnesses would say “They just looked like the normal family”.

During cross-examination, the prosecutors would ask the character witnesses if they ever spank their children which all three did say yes but did also say not to the point of bruises. They would also be asked if they would ever shave their head which again all said no and for the final question if they would ever deprive their children of food and or water to which all three said no.

At this point neither the defense nor prosecutors have any more witnesses to bring to the stand and at this time would review the sentence with the judge to then present it to the jury.

Before the jury would go into deliberations both the prosecutors and the defense would give their final words to the jury.

In the final remarks for the prosecution, the prosecution would make their key points for the jury that they wanted them to look at a timeline of August 29th of 2020, the day Jaylin died. In this timeline that the prosecutors had created it showed between 1 pm and 2 pm from when Jaylin was alive until she was pronounced dead.

At 1 pm that day, Jaylin was still jumping on the trampoline according to body cam footage, at 1:15 pm that day Ashley Schwarz testified under oath that she and Jaylin had made the I love you hand motion. Then at 1:30 pm Daniel Schwarz found Jaylin on the ground and said on the body cam footage later in the day " I took the trash out and I set it all to the side about twenty minutes before that”. At 1:45 pm the first officer on the scene said he was dispatched around that time and then was pronounced dead ten minutes later at 1:55 pm.

The prosecutors would then go on to ask " Is it reasonable to wait 15-20 minutes to call 9-1-1 for your child who looks like this”. At this time the prosecutors had shown a picture of Jaylin after her death.

The prosecutors would then go on to show more pictures of the Schwarz home that day where in the family room it showed a 2x4 sitting out as well as the two water bottles that were said to have been with the girls.

The prosecutors also played the jurors a body cam video where Ashley had told an officer she saw Jaylin’s death rolling with the dogs but suggested Ashley had seen Jaylin dying.

At this time the defense would argue that Jaylin’s death was not murder but was a tragedy.

Throughout the case, it was described that August 29th was an extremely hot day when it was only 97 degrees that day, which to West Texans in late August is just a normal day the defense said.

The defense would say “What they are wanting to do is convict this mom for letting her play outside”.

The defense would go on to say there is testimony that shows the girls would bring their water bottles inside to prevent the dogs from getting them.

The defense would also use one of the character witnesses’ granddaughters who is three years old to turn on the hose that Jaylin’s sister said they couldn’t turn on because it was hard to do so and that they were scared they would be punished if they did.

The granddaughter was able to turn it on and the defense would say there was water right there.

At this time the prosecutors would add more to their final remarks and finish it by saying,

“Ashley and Daniel Schwarz tried to cover up their story which is why there was a 15-20 min window where they did not call 9-1-1, if they wanted to cool her down and lower her body temperature, they would have used the hose that was argued she could have drunken out of”.

Neither the defense nor the prosecutors had any more to say the jury was set off to decide the three charges.

After three and half hours of deliberations, the jury found Ashley Schwarz guilty on all three charges.

Charge 1- Capital Murder- Guilty

Charge 2- Bodily Injury to a Child- Guilty

Charge 3- Injury to a child by omission- Guilty

Charge one was pre-sentenced and will be a life sentence which started immediately, charges two and three will be determined at a later date next week.