GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County jury has found the woman accused of killing her partner’s 8-year-old daughter guilty of her murder.
Amari Hall disappeared in 2021 and police later found her body in a wooded area of DeKalb County.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson was at the courthouse for the trial, where prosecutors presented their closing arguments with chilling language.
Prosecutors said Celeste Ownes dumped the body of Amari Hall like she was garbage and called the abuse that went on “barbaric.”
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Now, the jury is deciding whether she’s guilty of malice murder, child cruelty and 19 other charges.
Owens chose not to testify in her defense before the murder case went to the jury on Friday afternoon.
“This defendant was directly abusing not just Amari but all of the children,” said Gwinnett County prosecutor Sabrina Nizam during closing arguments. “The defendant helped beat the living life out of Amari.”
Owens’ defense attorney, Robert Greenwald said there was no evidence that Owens killed the 8-year-old girl.
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Prosecutors said Owens and Amari’s mother Brittany Hall both abused Amari and her two siblings.
A doctor testified in court that Amari died in 2021 from blunt force trauma and battered child syndrome.
“We don’t know if it was a foot, if it was a hand, we don’t know if it was a belt, we don’t know because they were beating these kids with hands, feet, some kind of whip type thing,” Nizam told the jury.
Owens’ attorney said there were still too many unanswered questions about how, when and where Amari died.
“Where was she killed? We don’t know. We have no evidence of that whatsoever,” Greenwald said. “There’s no direct evidence she killed Amari.”
Brittany Hall is still waiting for her own trial, where she’ll face charges of murder, child cruelty and concealing a death.
Prosecutors told jurors to consider all of the abuse Amari and her siblings went through.
“Every single blow was fatal to Amari,” Nizam said.
A detective also testified during the trial that Owens deleted incriminating searches from her phone, including “what to do when a child doesn’t listen” and “how sewers on the street work.”
The defense urged the jury to be careful not to let emotions get in the way of a verdict.
“You are to base your verdict on the evidence, or lack thereof,” he said.
Owens was found guilty on all counts. We awaiting word about sentencing.
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