JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After two and a half hours of deliberation, a jury decided the man accused of beating 2-year-old Alayna Williamson to death in 2017 is guilty.
Brandon Michael Smith was convicted of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
He has not yet been sentenced.
What happened to Alayna?
The crime took place at a motel in Jacksonville, so Smith will be tried in Duval County on murder charges.
The warrant for Smith's arrest says 2-year-old Alayna died of blunt force trauma to the head after she was taken to the hospital.
The child's mother and Smith's girlfriend, Sarah Williamson, told police that the day before the murder, she left the child with the suspect to go get food. When she returned home, the 2-year-old was in the shower, naked, with bruising on her face. Smith was standing in the bathroom in his underwear.
To explain the bruising, he said the Alayna "must have fallen while in the bathroom," police said.
The report says Williamson noted "her daughter was not crying, but appeared quiet and did not disclose what or how she received her injuries."
The next day, she left the child in the care of Smith again, this time to go to a laundromat. She was dead hours later.
She said Smith texted her and said he was going to bring the child to the laundromat because she "had possibly bit her tongue and was bleeding."
Williamson called Smith, and he said was going to put her in the shower and get her dressed before putting her in the car.
The arrest report says they stayed on the phone and as time passed, Smith reported Alayna's condition as worsening. She became unresponsive.
Williamson drove back to the motel to check on her daughter. She and Smith put her in the car to go to the hospital.
The report says Alayna stopped breathing on the way there.
A doctor said that when she arrived, she was not breathing, had brain swelling, multiple bruises on her face, hemorrhages in both eyes and had blood in her urine. She was transported from the emergency room to another hospital, where she died.
Williamson told police that Smith never provided an explanation what happened.
Smith took Williamson's car from the hospital and returned to the motel. He was arrested as a fugitive in Cumberland County, North Carolina and extradited to Jacksonville.
