John Jefferson
Left: Deontray Flanagan during his murder trial (KHOU/YouTube). Zevaya Flanagan (Allen Dave Funeral Homes).
A Texas man will spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury took less than two hours to convict him for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, in which he strangled her while FaceTiming her horrified mother and grandfather — all while on a high-speed chase with police.
Deontray Flanagan, 26, was convicted of capital murder in the 2023 death of Zevaya Marie Flanagan in Houston. The victim’s family was pleased with the verdict and had a message for Flanagan.
“You may have taken last breath, but you cannot kill her spirit, her memory, or her name,” her grandfather Curtis Watson told local CBS affiliate KHOU.
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Flanagan’s apparent propensity for violence continued in the courtroom as he attacked a KHOU news camera, shoving it to the ground and injuring a photojournalist, before the verdict. Several court deputies tackled Flanagan to the ground to restrain him.
During the three-day trial, the jury saw a video of the girl’s mother, Kairsten Watson, watching her daughter die from the back of a police cruiser.
“Please stop – that is our daughter,” she pleaded in the video, according to a courtroom report from the Houston Chronicle.
She testified about how she felt helpless.
“There was nothing I could do about it,” she reportedly said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Watson described the terrifying call in an interview with a local TV station in the days after the murder.
“Her face was just covered in blood,” she told Fox affiliate KRIV. “He hit her with something really hard, and then he called me on FaceTime, and he showed me. He choked her on FaceTime. I said, ‘Tray stop, that is your daughter, stop, she loves you.’ His exact words were you only love that man, you did this to her.”
At around 10 a.m. on March 20, 2023, Flanagan took his daughter out of day care and then barged into a nearby Walmart where Kairsten Martin worked, according to the Houston Police Department. There, the defendant confronted Watson and began threatening her – demanding her phone, passcodes, and other related information because he thought she was speaking with other men.
“Basically threatening to hurt the child if she did not turn those items over,” an HPD spokesperson said during a press conference after the incident. “She complied. She made an attempt to try and rescue her daughter from his stronghold. But she was unable to do so. At that point, we’re told, [Deontray Flanagan] struck her possibly a couple of times to the face and continued to flee the location.”
The defendant left with his daughter, his own phone, and Watson’s phone, police say. After that, law enforcement was contacted and quickly honed in on the location by tracking one of the phones.
A 45-minute-long chase ensued; spanning some 30 or so miles. Flanagan traveled the wrong way on some roads and slammed into other vehicles. Police say they finally caught up with the red Camaro and learned that Flanagan’s daughter was traveling without a seatbelt on — not that it mattered in the end.
While driving, Flanagan repeatedly contacted the girl’s mother via FaceTime – again demanding login information.
“I know in her mind she probably was just like ‘what did I do?’ Kairsten Watson told KHOU after the incident. “‘Why are you doing this to me for? Like I love you, why are you hurting me?’”
Curtis Watson told the TV station he had hopes that the terrifying incident would end peacefully.
“But then he showed me the lifeless corpse of my granddaughter,” Curtis Watson told KHOU. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. To have to go through that type of anguish and pain.”
Once the defendant’s car was stopped, police said, there was a 20-minute-long standoff. Then the SWAT team moved in.
Zevaya Flanagan required CPR, authorities said. Flanagan was unharmed. The girl was rushed to a nearby hospital in a helicopter. But it was too late, she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report
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