May 6, 2022 – Dazrine Chagoya-Williams, 24, of Kyle, Texas, was convicted of the capital murder of her infant child and sentenced to life without parole.
The trial evidence presented over the last two weeks showed that on July 4, 2018, Dazrine Chagoya-Williams called 911, claiming that her 20-month-old son, Mason Williams, was discovered not breathing after a nap. Kyle Fire Department and EMS attempted to perform life-saving measures on Mason, and soon noticed bruising and other evidence that the death had occurred hours earlier. Investigators later learned that up to twelve minutes before calling 911, Chagoya-Williams and her husband, Stevie Dwayne Williams, Jr., 27, had placed multiple calls to tell family members the baby was dead.
Both the medical examiner and a Dell Children’s Hospital pediatrics expert testified that Mason’s death resulted from squeezing the child’s body, depriving his brain of oxygen. The day following Mason’s death, the Williams’ other child, an 8-month-old baby girl, was removed from their care by Child Protective Services (CPS). Physicians at Dell Children’s Hospital discovered multiple serious injuries on Mason’s sister, similar to those Mason suffered.
Chagoya-Williams gave multiple statements containing numerous inconsistencies and denying knowledge of her children’s injuries. Phone extractions from both Chagoya-Williams’ and her husband’s phones, however, showed injuries to both children over several months.
In addition, CPS caseworkers testified to observing similar injuries on Mason in 2017. Mason had been returned to Chagoya-Williams and her husband by CPS in March 2018, only after the Williamses completed required services.
Dazrine Chagoya-Williams’ trial began on April 25, 2022. She was convicted of capital murder of a child under 10 years of age after the jury’s guilty verdict Friday afternoon, May 6, 2022. Bill Henry, the 428th Judicial District Court Judge, sentenced Chagoya-Williams to life in prison without the possibility of parole (the sentence being automatic in a capital murder case in which, as here, the State does not seek the death penalty).
The Hays County Criminal District Attorney’s Office represented the Department of Family and Protective Services in a parental rights termination trial in February 2019, that concluded with a jury terminating the couple’s parental rights to their surviving child. Chagoya-Williams’ husband, Stevie Dwayne Williams, Jr., 27, of San Marcos, Texas was convicted of capital murder in October 2021 and is himself currently serving life without the possibility of parole.
The Hays County Criminal District Attorney, Wes Mau, said, “The fact that both his parents were complicit in ending Mason Williams’ too-short life makes this case doubly tragic.”
Mau complimented lead prosecutor Assistant Criminal District Attorney Jamie Liu, assisted at trial by ACDA Erika Price, along with Kyle Police Department Detectives Joseph Swonke, Pedro Carrasco, and Diane Talamantes for their work in bringing the case to a successful conclusion.
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