Trial over stepchild’s ’19 death is put off

TEXARKANA — A trial in a death-penalty case involving a woman accused of fatally beating her husband’s 3-year-old daughter last year has been postponed.

McKenna Faith Belcher, 27, is charged with capital murder in the April death of McKinley Cawley. The case was scheduled for jury selection later this month before Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson.

Last week, Belcher’s defense team filed a motion seeking a continuance in the case. The motion notes that the defense has recently received thousands of pages of documents and two videos from the state, which it needs time to review. The motion further argues that reports on testing from physical evidence haven’t been received by the state or defense and that the defense needs more time to conduct a “mitigation investigation” in advance of the trial.

In a death-penalty case, the defense is obliged to conduct an in-depth investigation into the accused’s past. The goal is to find evidence that might lead a jury to choose a sentence of life without parole rather than lethal injection in the event of a conviction.

Johnson scheduled Belcher’s case for a status hearing next month. A firm date for jury selection has not been rescheduled.

Belcher was arrested the day McKinley died of bluntforce injuries in a Little Rock hospital, according to reports. McKinley’s father, Everette Cawley, 23, has been charged with being an accomplice to capital murder, accused of failing to intervene while Belcher physically abused the girl in the couple’s duplex apartment in the 3800 block of Linden Avenue in Texarkana, reports said.

When medical personnel in an emergency room first treated McKinley, child abuse was immediately suspected, according to a probable-cause affidavit. The child’s head had been shaved, presumably to conceal that locks of hair had been ripped from her head, and she was unresponsive, according to records. McKinley died hours later.

The couple also is facing charges over reported injuries on McKinley’s younger brother. The infant born to the couple in January 2019 was found to be in need of medical attention and was taken into state custody on April 2, the day McKinley died, reports show.

Cawley is facing the same possible punishment as Belcher if found guilty of being an accomplice to capital murder. At a hearing last month Prosecuting Attorney Stephanie Potter Barrett declined to say whether the state will seek a death sentence in his case. Barrett announced last year that her office will seek the death penalty in Belcher’s case.

Belcher and Cawley are being held in the Miller County jail.