Lowell Preston Garza, left, is escorted outside the Lampasas County Courthouse by Assistant Jail Administrator Bill Tower, as the capital murder trial of Garza entered its second day on Tuesday. A jury of six men and six women was selected to hear deliberations in 27th District Court. Garza is charged in connection with the death last August of his 2-month-old daughter, Isabella Preslei Garza. PHOTO BY JIM LOWE A jury of six men and six women just before noon Thursday rendered a guilty verdict in the trial of 20- year-old Lowell Preston Garza. Garza was arrested Aug. 18, 2009, in connection with the death the prior night of his two-month-old daughter, Isabella Garza.

The jury convicted Garza on the lesser charge of second degree manslaughter rather than capital murder -- characterized by intentionally or knowingly causing the death of a child six months or younger, said visiting 27th District Court Judge Bill Bachus.

Manslaughter, or recklessly creating a situation that causes a person’s death, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Punishment phase was set to begin at 1 p.m. Thursday. Defense attorney Eddie Shell of Marble Falls said he expected Garza to be eligible for parole.

Shell said Garza’s actions were reckless but did not meet the “intentional and knowing” standards needed for a capital murder conviction.

“We are very thankful that the jury stuck to the law as written,” Shell said. “Lowell Garza is a very lucky man right now.”

Jurors on Wednesday heard testimony that Garza twice confessed to hitting his daughter in the abdomen with his fist shortly before her death.

Testimony offered by Texas Ranger Jess Ramos indicated Garza, on Aug. 19, signed a statement in which he admitted striking his daughter three times with his fist.

In the statement, Garza — who did not testify during the trial — said he pushed his daughter’s legs into her chest in an effort to make her release gas. When the child remained “fussy,” Garza said in the statement he hit the infant in the stomach three times with the side of his closed fist “like a hammer blow.”

“I wasn’t planning on hitting her. It just, like, happened,” he said in the statement.

Although the first blow made the child cry more, the infant became quiet and appeared to sleep after Garza hit her the final time, according to the statement.

In the statement, Garza also said he did not immediately tell his wife, Raquel Crystal Spurck Garza, about his actions. Mrs. Garza was in the shower with her year-and-a-half-old son, Isaiah, when Isabella sustained her injuries, according to the statement.

When Mrs. Garza later noticed Isabella was cold, had “clammy” hands and was having difficulty breathing, she and her husband rushed the child to Metroplex Hospital in Killeen in a vehicle driven by Garza’s father, Preston Lindsey. At the time, the Garzas were living with Lindsey and his wife, Dorothy, in the Lindseys’ home.

Garza performed CPR on Isabella multiple times during the drive to the hospital, according to the statement.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” Garza added in the statement. “Crystal had nothing to do with the injuries to Isabella.”

On Wednesday, Dr. Evan Matshes — a forensic pathology fellow and medical examiner for the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas — testified that an autopsy he performed revealed Isabella died as a result of “blunt trauma.” The infant’s injuries included skull fractures; bruises on her face, chest and hip, and near the voice box; hemorrhaging near the thymus gland; and significant hemorrhaging near the diaphragm.

In addition, the child suffered a “superficial” spleen tear, an injury usually caused by “direct blunt impact to the abdomen,” Matshes said. The infant, who the doctor said lost about half her volume of blood, also sustained extensive tears on her liver. The organ was “fractured into many individual portions” and suffered extensive interior damage, the medical examiner said.

“It was turned into pulp,” Matshes said. “There were so many tears inside the liver itself.”

Responding to a question from the defense attorney, Matshes said Isabella’s injuries could not have resulted from vigorous CPR en route to the hospital.

During cross-examination on Wednesday by Lampasas County District Attorney Larry Allison, who is prosecuting the case against Garza, Ramos said Garza reaffirmed his Aug. 19 statement when the defendant spoke with the Texas Ranger and with Lampasas County Sheriff’s Investigator John Seery on Sept. 2.

Investigators met with Garza Sept. 2 to address rumors in the jail that in his Aug. 19 confession Garza told officers “what we wanted to hear,” Ramos said.

In a video from the Sept. 2 meeting, Garza said he had told the truth about hitting his daughter and that he did not know what caused the baby’s skull fractures. Garza also repeated — as he had said in the Aug. 19 statement — that his wife had been taking a shower when he was in the bedroom where his daughter was lying face up on a blanket.

“It wasn’t like I meant to do it ... it didn’t hit me until after I did it,” Garza said in the Sept. 2 interview of striking his daughter.

The defendant also stated on Sept. 2 that Mrs. Garza was “a real good mom” and had nothing to do with the infant’s injuries, Ramos said.

Neither Garza nor his wife, who was arrested the same day as her husband but was released Aug. 21 after posting a $3,500 bond, mentioned in interviews Aug. 17 and Aug. 18 that Garza had struck his daughter. In an interview at the jail Aug. 18, shortly before her arrest, Mrs. Garza told Ramos she and her husband observed Isabella in good condition after Mrs. Garza finished her shower.

“I got out of the shower, we went in, and she looked fine,” Mrs. Garza said, according to Ramos’ testimony.

Shell said after her arrest Mrs. Garza “changed her story,” saying she first noticed Isabella’s cold, clammy skin and extremely labored breathing shortly after stepping out of the shower.

In her recorded interview Aug. 18 before her arrest, Mrs. Garza also said her husband never was alone with his daughter the day of her death, that everybody in the house got along with Isabella and that Garza was a “wonderful father, a wonderful husband.”

During testimony Tuesday, Mrs. Garza — who sobbed several times as she recounted her daughter’s death — said her husband often became “overwhelmed” and angry when Isabella cried, and would hand the child to Mrs. Garza when the child became fussy.

“He would just get frustrated, and he would just not deal with it,” she said.

Before Mrs. Garza showered the night of Aug. 17, her husband acted “very nonchalant” when she suggested taking Isabella to see a doctor about her ear infections, Mrs. Garza said. The defendant was concerned about seeking medical care, Mrs. Garza testified, because he thought doctors would blame him for the baby’s condition.

“It didn’t surprise me,” she testified. “He was always very defensive.”

Shell, however, said Mrs. Garza began changing her account of events and characterized her husband as a bad father only after she was arrested and after her bail was reduced from $750,000 to $3,500. Mrs. Garza also received immunity from prosecution, the attorney said.

“The only reason for her to change her story was that she got arrested and needed to point the finger,” Shell said.

Mrs. Garza testified that in her initial talks with investigators she did not reveal everything she had observed because shock had clouded her memory and because she was “in denial” about her child’s death. Until officers arrested the couple, Mrs. Garza said, she refused to believe her child’s death had been a homicide.

“There was no way... I protected her, and ... there was no way I would let that happen to her,” Mrs. Garza said of her thoughts when she first learned of the autopsy results.

Although she said her and her husband’s arrests helped her face reality, Mrs. Garza said the reduction of her bond had no effect on her subsequent statements.

Mrs. Garza also said she was intimidated because Ramos and Seery used “very assertive” interrogation techniques when they interviewed her Aug. 18 before her arrest.

“I just felt like I was being accused,” she testified. “I don’t feel like I lied. I made my best attempt to answer the questions in the state I was in.”

Responding to questions from Shell, however, Ramos said Mrs. Garza came to the jail voluntarily to speak with him and Seery. The Texas Ranger said it would be inaccurate for Mrs. Garza to say investigators “badgered” her.

Allison said Tuesday, after the jury recessed for the day, that Mrs. Garza offered a believable explanation for why her later statements differed from her initial remarks with investigators.

“I just wanted the jury to have a full picture of why she was in denial,” Allison said. “I think she was credible.”

The main details of Mrs. Garza’s six-page signed statement on Aug. 19 match her husband’s Aug. 19 and Sept. 2 statements, the prosecutor said.

“If you look at his confession and her detailed statement, they pretty well track each other,” Allison said. “There are no major inconsistencies.”

Along with questioning Mrs. Garza’s credibility, though, Shell emphasized that Lowell Garza signed his Aug. 19 statement, which Allison described as a “confession,” after a monitored conversation at the jail with his father. Lindsey told his son numerous times, Ramos testified, that he did not want Garza to die.

In addition to possible fears of the death penalty, Shell said, Garza also faced pressure to confess to hitting his daughter because Ramos had told Garza numerous times that the defendant had lied in earlier statements.

Shell also said Garza wanted his wife released from jail so she could care for Isaiah — who Garza believed was his son. Mrs. Garza testified that she introduced Garza to her mother as “Isaiah’s dad.” DNA testing since has proven that Garza is not Isaiah’s biological father, Mrs. Garza testified, although she still is awaiting a definitive paternity ruling.

Ramos testified that during Garza’s conversation with Lindsey the defendant said, “Maybe if I just fall for it, she [Crystal Garza] can get out and care for Isaiah.”

When questioned Tuesday by Allison, however, Seery testified that he never got the impression Garza was taking the blame for anybody else. Although Ramos said Garza reiterated many times that his wife was not responsible for their daughter’s injuries, the Texas Ranger said the defendant did not try to “protect” Mrs. Garza in his Aug. 19 or Sept. 2 statements.

Garza did not testify during the trial and showed little emotion during Tuesday’s proceedings. He wiped away tears on several occasions Wednesday, however, when Allison questioned Ramos about a video of a recorded statement Garza gave law enforcement on Sept. 2, 2009.