Bastrop, Tx–After less than an hour of deliberation Friday, a jury of nine women and three men found a 31-year-old Paige man guilty of capital murder in the June 2007 death of a 26-pound child who was approaching his third birthday.
As some relatives sobbed quietly in the courtroom, 335th District Judge Reva Towslee Corbett sentenced Christopher Lee Murray to life in prison without parole, the only punishment available under state law since prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.
After prosecution and defense lawyers made their final arguments and appeals to jurors, the judge sent them to deliberate at 2:29 p.m. Friday. By 3:25 p.m. they told the court they had reached a verdict. It was a stunningly swift decision, given that the jury panel had eight days of witness testimony and related evidence to consider, including sometimes tearful testimony Thursday from the defendant.
Prosecutors argued that the pattern and extent of injuries revealed by an autopsy on the body of Robert “Robbie” Faske revealed an intentional assault on the child by Murray which resulted in death.
Evidence in the trial indicated that Murray was alone with the child from about 9:30 a.m. until after 1:30 p.m. on June 11, 2007. Murray testified that Faske apparently was injured by a fall from a “computer chair” in their residence on Old Pin Oak Road during the morning but appeared to be “fine” for some time afterward. Murray said more serious injuries perhaps resulted later when he was carrying the child outdoors and fell on him while descending a steep set of stairs leading to the ground from the residence where they lived.
Murray did not seek emergency medical help for Faske until after his mother, grandmother and other relatives returned to the Paige residence from a shopping trip to Austin.
Autopsy results revealed that Faske sustained a broken bone in his neck, five broken ribs, a skull fracture which resulted in bleeding into the brain cavity, bruising to the spleen and tears to the liver and small intestine. The autopsy also identified some 120 bruises to the child’s body, most of which–according to other testimony–had not been apparent before the incidents of the fatal day.