GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Celeste Owens remained silent during the third day of testimony in her trial for the murder of 8-year-old Amari Hall, her partner’s daughter.
Owens is accused of striking Amari over the head and later dumping her body in a wooded area in DeKalb County in 2021.
“You could still see her body through some of the trash bags,” Kea Jimenez, a crime scene investigation supervisor with Gwinnett County Police testified on Thursday.
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Surveillance video presented in court showed Owens at a U-Haul rental store on Nov. 19, the day prosecutors believe Amari died. A detective testified that Owens purchased bleach and gloves that day, two days before Amari’s mother, Brittany Hall, reported her missing.
Prosecutors allege Owens drove from the rental store, a dollar store and then to retrieve Amari’s body from the Gwinnett County hotel where they lived before she drove to dispose of it in a wooded area in DeKalb County.
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“It was approximately 27 miles, the exact mileage the defendant had driven,” Det. Randy Blackburn with Gwinnett County Police testified.
Prosecutors provided evidence in court that showed the van rented by Owens spotted near the place where Amari’s body was found.
Amari’s mother, Brittany Hall, is awaiting her own trial on charges of murder, child cruelty, and concealing a death. Prosecutors allege that Hall and Owens abused Amari and her two siblings.
The court also heard testimony about searches Owens allegedly deleted from her phone, including “what to do when a child doesn’t listen,” “lakes near me,” “how to report someone missing,” and “how sewers on the street work.”
Amari’s grandmother testified late Tuesday that she had hoped to care for Amari and her siblings but was denied an opportunity by Amari’s mother.
“[My husband and I] would drive around hoping we could find them, but we couldn’t ever find them,” she said.
Testimony is expected to continue Friday.
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