Prosecutors on Tuesday began laying out the case against the man they say stomped and bounced on the pregnant belly of a teenage sexual assault victim to force an abortion.
The teen's stillborn baby was then taken from her by relatives, who later burned it on a charcoal grill to destroy it, Dallas County prosecutors said during opening statements at Lonnell McDonald's trial.
McDonald, 28, is charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder and aggravated assault and faces up to 99 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.
Three of the teen's other relatives have also been accused in the 2013 attack. Cousins Cecila McDonald, 27, and Cedric Jones Jr., 28, and Sharon Jones, 46, an aunt, have been charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder.
The girl's brother, Robert Cayald, 23, faces a sexual assault charge in the case.
McDonald beat on the teen's abdomen for hours until her water broke and she began bleeding, according to an arrest affidavit. She later had a miscarriage, and her relatives attempted to destroy the stillborn baby on a grill, officials have said.
When that didn't work, Sharon Jones paid Cedric Jones Jr. $25 to "take care of the rest of it," according to an affidavit. He is accused of putting the baby in a plastic bag and stashing it in a location still unknown to authorities.
"To this day, we don't know what happened to that baby," prosecutor Rachel Burris told jurors. "We can't tell you what happened to that baby, but we can tell you what happened to" the teen.
The Dallas Morning News generally does not name victims of sexual assault.
The teen, who is now 17 and lives with a foster family in Denton, said Tuesday that she waited two years to tell authorities about the attack because she had hoped to forget it ever happened. She said she reported it in 2015 because something changed.
"I didn't really care anymore because I was tired," she said. "Tired of everything."
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