HOUSTON — Zevaya Flanagan was an adorable 2-year-old girl with a bubbly personality, pigtails and an endearing smile.
In March 2023, the Houston toddler’s life came to a horrifying end as her mother and grandfather watched helplessly on FaceTime. Prosecutors said Zevaya was strangled and beaten by her father, Deontray Flanagan, during a a 45-minute police chase.
Flanagan’s capital murder trial began Wednesday morning in downtown Houston. Now, Zevaya’s mother and grandfather will have to relive the worst moment of their lives.
The most intense evidence the jury saw on Wednesday was video inside a deputy’s squad car during the chase. Zevaya’s mother, Kairsten Watson, was screaming and pleading with Flanagan to stop hurting their daughter. At one point, she said, “He’s killed her, he’s killing her.”
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around why?” Zevaya’s mother, Kairsten Watson, told KHOU 11 back then. “How could you do this to your little girl?”
Watson said she missed the simple things that she shared with her daughter.
“I gave her baths. We laid together and we sleep together,” Watson said. “And now I won’t be able to do any of that anymore.”
‘Why are you doing this to me?’
Prosecutors said Flanagan picked up Zevaya from daycare on March 21, 2023, and then drove to a nearby Walmart where Watson worked. They said he attacked Watson, took her phone and sped off with Zevaya.
Court records show Flanagan called Watson and her father, Curtis Watson, from the car as he assaulted Zevaya on FaceTime.
“I know in her mind she probably was just like, ‘What did I do?’ Watson said. “‘Why are you doing this to me? Like, I love you, why are you hurting me?’”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office tried to pull them over but he kept going. During the chase that followed Zevaya, who wasn’t in a car seat or buckled in, was tossed around the car.
Curtis Watson said they tried to reason with Flanagan on the phone and hoped he would come to his senses.
“But then he showed me the lifeless corpse of my granddaughter,” Curtis said. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. To have to go through that type of anguish and pain.”
A tactical team eventually arrested Flanagan after a standoff.
Zevaya was airlifted to Memorial Hermann but she died at the hospital.
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Court records said Flanagan was upset with Watson because he thought she was talking to another man after trying to end things with him.
“All I was trying to do was provide for my daughter and like move on, and I guess he just didn’t want that,” Watson said.
Prosecutors said that Flanagan’s criminal history includes attacking his brother, who is special needs.
His trial is expected to last about a week.
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