Left: Terrie Ann Gray (Vernon Parish District Attorney”s Office). Right: Athena Miller (Jeane’s Funeral Service).
A Louisiana jury took all of five minutes to come back with a guilty verdict for a woman who fatally beat her boyfriend’s 4-year-old daughter from head to toe in a dungeon-like room.
Terrie Ann Gray, 49, was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree child abuse in the death of Athena Miller, the Vernon Parish District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. The jury also found Gray guilty of second-degree child cruelty for abusing Athena’s 2-year-old brother.
Cops responded to a home in Leesville, which is some 110 miles south of Shreveport, on Nov. 6, 2024, for an unresponsive child. Paramedics rushed Athena to a local hospital and later transferred her to a trauma center. Athena died the next day. A medical examiner determined she died of blunt force trauma to the head.
The children came to live with Gray just a few months before the incident. Their father, Logan Miller, is also charged with abuse and is slated to go on trial in October.
According to a courtroom report from local NBC affiliate KPLC, Athena died from “cardiopulmonary arrest, intracranial bilateral hemorrhaging, and non-accidental injuries from child abuse.”
A child-abuse pediatrician told jurors that Athena suffered from bruises, abrasions, lacerations and burns from head to toe. The injuries were clearly inflicted and not the result of an accident, Dr. Jennifer Rodriguez reportedly told the court.
Rodriguez said the case has left a lasting impression on her.
“I have not had many cases where it took me a while to be okay days after,” she testified, per KPLC.
Miller reportedly took the stand. However, he refused to answer questions and pleaded the Fifth.
Prosecutors said Gray and Miller held the children in a dungeon-like room. Gray “hated Athena,” prosecutor Lea Hall reportedly told jurors during closing arguments while showing pictures of her horrific injuries.
Hall reportedly called Gray “despicable” and a “child-abusing b—” but told jurors to make their determination based on the law.
Defense attorney Antonio Sparks said there was no evidence his client inflicted the abuse on Athena and she never indicated she hated her.
In response, Hall reportedly said: “Terrie Gray never said ‘I hated those children,’ but she sure showed it.”
Athena’s obituary called her a “loving child that enjoyed playing outside and sitting in her Mommy’s lap.”
“Athena loved playing with her baby dolls and her brother, Salem, wasn’t only her brother — he was her best friend too,” the obituary said.
Gray is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 25.
