Stepmother found guilty of murdering 10-year-old Emani Moss

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Jurors have reached a verdict in the case of a Gwinnett County woman accused of starving her stepdaughter to death.

The jury found Tiffany Moss guilty on all counts, including the murder of 10-year-old Emani Moss. She is facing the possibility of being sentenced to death.

Jurors are considering execution, life without parole or life with parole.

Channel 2 Gwinnett County bureau chief Tony Thomas was in the courtroom when closing arguments finished around 10 a.m. Monday.

Prosecutors said Moss starved the 10-year-old, then burned her body in a trash can.

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“She wasn’t a child to her,” Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones said during her emotional closing argument. “She was nothing. She was a nuisance. She was ugly. She was a pain. She was disposable. She was trash.”

But Emani was a daughter, a granddaughter, a friend and a young girl with an easy smile who brought happiness to her teachers, Jones said.

“She was Emani and she mattered,” said Jones, holding up a photo of the girl to the jury. “She mattered.”

Moss is representing herself. She did not make a closing argument, nor did she call a single witness. Her standby lawyers have asked the judge to allow them to step in, but he declined.

"There are some crimes that are so horrible, that are so heinous, the only balance that you can pay is with your life," Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said.

Porter urged jurors to sentence Moss to death, saying there is no way she will change in prison.

"Do you think she is going to change? Do you think she is going to rehabilitate? The answer to that is, 'No,'" Porter said.

The jury deciding if Moss should die for killing her stepdaughter said they were stuck and asked to sleep on it.

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