Travis Brown guilty of aggravated murder in child's death, automatic life sentence awaits
STAUNTON — Following two days of testimony, an Augusta County jury found Travis Brown guilty Wednesday in the torture and killing of 3-year-old Khaleesi Cuthriell.
Convicted of aggravated murder, Brown, 31, will automatically be given life in prison with no chance of parole when formally sentenced Feb. 8.
The jury took just less than four hours to reach its decision.
The prosecution rested its case Wednesday morning in Augusta County Circuit Court. Defense attorney Dana Cormier declined to put any witnesses on the stand, including Brown, and the jury began deliberating by about 12:30 p.m.
It was announced by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office in September 2021 that Cuthriell was missing. Her body has never been found.
Evidence during the trial, which started Monday, showed that the girl’s mother, before being placed in Middle River Regional Jail on a probation violation, sought to place the toddler with a relative. However, testimony revealed that Child Protective Services, a division of Shenandoah Valley Social Services, stepped in and wouldn’t allow the move. Instead, the mother placed Khaleesi in the care of Candi Jo Royer, Brown’s live-in girlfriend, in October 2020. The CPS employee who took her to the home never revisited to check on Khaleesi, evidence showed.
The toddler would be dead by mid-January 2021, authorities now believe, but she wouldn’t be reported missing until September 2021 when her mother told a jail official she’d lost contact with the couple and hadn’t spoken to her daughter in several months.
With the child’s whereabouts unknown, at the time authorities scrambled in an effort to determine where Khaleesi might be.
After police captured Brown and Royer at a motel in South Greensburg, Pennsylvania, the same month Khaleesi was reported missing, Brown was interrogated by investigators from the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. During questioning, he finally admitted the toddler was dead after initially lying and telling investigators a CPS official in a state car had taken her away in January 2021.
In explaining her death, Brown claimed she purposely hit her head on a doorframe and died on the second floor of the home he shared with Royer. A drug addict at the time, Brown said he then passed out. After waking, Brown said he left Khaleesi’s body on the floor until the next day, when he said he wrapped her in a blanket and put her body in a garbage can.
Evidence during the trial showed Khaleesi was being abused soon after she began living with Brown and Royer. Videos and photographs showed most of Khaleesi's body was already covered in bruises, cuts and burns just several weeks after moving into the couple's home. Large swaths of hair were also missing.
Video of Khaleesi taken Jan. 12, 2021, perhaps her last day alive, according to Augusta County Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Martin, showed a frightened and confused child being verbally berated by Royer while being made to stand naked in a dry bathtub in her own feces. Missing most of her hair and covered in cuts and bruises, the toddler was visibly shaking during the ordeal.
On Tuesday in court, Dr. Robin Foster, an expert on child abuse and torture, took the stand and was asked to analyze photographs and videos of Khaleesi. A pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU Health, Foster noted that in the first photo she was shown, taken in November 2020 less than three weeks after the toddler arrived at the couple's home, it revealed slight bruising on her forehead, a swollen cheek and an abrasion underneath her bottom lip.
Just three days later, some of Khaleesi's hair is missing in another photo, and the bruising is more noticeable. Soft-tissue injuries to her face became more pronounced in the photos as her stay at the home progressed. The toddler also thinned considerably during her stay, and had what appeared to be three burns on her right ear that Foster said were most likely caused by a cigarette. In one photo, the child had two ulcerated blisters on the inside of her mouth that were indicative of burns, Foster said. Her feet were discolored in other photos. "Her toes almost look blackened," the doctor testified.
When asked to compare a photo showing a smiling Khaleesi just days after her arrival to another photo taken several weeks later that showed her with numerous injuries and noticeably thinner, Foster said, "It's not even recognizable as the same child." In her opinion, Foster said the case "fits the definition of child torture."
Another witness, a woman Brown had a romantic fling with before fleeing the area in 2021, testified Tuesday that Brown told her "he had murdered somebody."
After authorities arrested the couple in Pennsylvania, Virginia State Police searched their home on Cattle Scales Road near Waynesboro. There, they found bloodstains on a wall that contained Khaleesi's DNA. One of the bloodstains was 6 feet off the floor. Police located a wire hanger with a handle made of tape that contained Royer's DNA and the toddler's, evidence showed. Khaleesi's door to her bedroom also had a lock on the outside, according to evidence.
“Travis Brown and his girlfriend tortured Khaleesi to death,” Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin said during closing arguments Wednesday in Augusta County Circuit Court.
The couple had a number of electronic communications that were used against Brown, including a testy exchange where Royer tells him "you know what you did Travis." He responds, "Just know the gunshot your [sic] about to hear is a bullet going through my head."
“That’s not what an innocent person says,” Martin said.
With a nearly packed courtroom looking on, Martin told the jury Khaleesi was starved, burned, isolated and beaten. He also noted that the bloodstained wall containing Khaleesi's DNA was found near a doorframe in her bedroom.
Martin said the couple had total control over the toddler and their intent was to kill her. “He threw her away,” he said of Brown. “She was somebody’s baby, and once he was done with her he threw her away.”
Defense attorney Dana Cormier argued during his closing argument that Royer was the one who psychologically and physically abused Khaleesi. “We saw her doing it in the videos,” he said.
Cormier implored the jury not to let anger get in the way of its decision-making process. “Take a breath and let’s do our job as jurors right now,” he said.
Cormier said he will file an appeal.
The jury convicted Brown on a lesser murder charge as well, but it's not clear what will happen to that charge since he was also convicted on the more serious charge of aggravated murder. Brown was also found guilty of child abuse.
"We certainly didn't have a doubt as to whether Travis Brown participated in this," Martin said following the verdicts.
Martin said the two-year investigation into Khaleesi's death was "unbelievably trying. The pictures that you saw, what happened to her, has been devastating ever since we learned about it."
Brown remains at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona.
Royer, also charged with aggravated murder, will be tried in October.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the name of Shenandoah Valley Social Services.
Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Travis Brown found guilty of murder in toddler's death
