Mom’s friend and boyfriend torttured and killed her 3-year-old daughter before throwing the body in the trash, then told police that the child killed herself by intentionally ramming her head into a doorframe; convicted

According to the court documents, the 31-year-old defendant, Travis, was convicted in the death of 3-year-old Khalesi. Prosecutors said the man was found guilty on all charges, including: aggravated murder, felony murder, child abuse, child cruelty, concealing a dead body and conspiracy.

During the investigation process, the defendant reportedly told investigators different stories. Khalesi’s body has never been found.

Initially, he told investigators that the 3-year-old child wasn’t even dead. In another story, he reportedly told them that the child was dead, but killed herself by intentionally ramming her head into a doorframe.

The defendant’s attorney claimed another adult was actually the one responsible for the fatal torture the girl suffered. According to the court documents, the victim came to live with Travis after her mother, Amanda, went to jail for violating her probation. Amanda suggested the child go live with her friend, Candi, who had offered to babysit in the past. Candi also lived with Travis.

Several months later, the child had a few visible cuts and bruises. Some of her hair had begun to fall out, the Leader reported. Shortly after, she was thin to the point of being unrecognizable, witness testified. She was covered in cuts and bruises; her feet were swollen and purple; she had also been burned.

Most of her hair was gone — the 3-year-old girl had been terrorized to the point of being nearly completely bald. “No one likes you, Khalesi,” a woman’s voice can be heard off-camera in a video. Commonwealth’s Attorney Martin played the footage for jurors in which the girl appears frightened, shaking, confused – forced to stand in her own feces in a bathtub. Prosecutors identified the voice as Candi’s. That was the last day Amanda ever spoke to her daughter.

Khaleei was reported missing by her mother in September 2021, months after she had died and been thrown in the trash. Amanda said that before the child went to live with Candi and Travis, she was happy all the time. The distraught mom had tried to connect with her sweet and smart daughter several times before that.

But every time, she got another excuse. “Travis and his girlfriend tortured Khalesi to death,” Martin said during closing arguments. “He threw her away. She was somebody’s baby, and once he was done with her he threw her away.”

Under the state law, the condemned man will automatically be sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole on Feb. 8, 2024. Candi’s trial, on the same charges, is scheduled to begin Oct. 16.