BATH — Prosecutors told a Sagadahoc County jury Monday that they know who killed 3-year-old Makinzlee Handrahan three years ago, even if they’re still unsure when it happened.
Tyler Witham-Jordan, 31, is charged with one count of depraved indifference murder in connection with the death of Makinzlee, who was found beaten to death in her bed in Edgecomb on Christmas morning in 2022. He has pleaded not guilty
Jurors began deliberating Monday afternoon in Witham-Jordan’s second trial. The first, held in December 2024 in Lincoln County Superior Court, ended in a mistrial when the girl’s mother, Faith Lewis, broke down after being shown photographs of her daughter’s body.
Witham-Jordan’s lawyers have alleged in court that Lewis is a possible suspect. Witham-Jordan was in a relationship with Lewis before her daughter’s death. He was arrested almost 10 months after Makinzlee’s death was ruled a homicide.
Prosecutors have said they believe Witham-Jordan used a hairbrush to beat Makinzlee to death. Police found the brush, broken, in a bathroom garbage can. The head of the brush contained a large clump of the girl’s hair and Witham-Jordan’s DNA was found on the handle.
Defense attorney James Howaniec said Witham-Jordan’s DNA was found on items that he used regularly, including the hairbrush, and suggested that his DNA was found on Makinzlee’s fingernails because he helped take care of her.
“This case is more about what’s not in evidence, than what’s in evidence,” Howaniec told the jury on Monday.
The state’s chief deputy medical examiner, Liam Funte, testified earlier in the trial about Makinzlee’s severe injuries, which a prosecutor said Monday could only have been inflicted by an adult.
The timing of Makinzlee’s death remains one of the biggest questions, and one the defense has raised as a hole in the case. According to police, it could have happened any time after the girl lay down for a nap the afternoon of Christmas Eve up to the next morning.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Ackerman showed the jury texts indicating Witham-Jordan had been angry with Makinzlee for being sick the week of her death. Prosecutors said the texts also showed that Witham-Jordan was angry on the morning of Dec. 24, 2022, after having bought what he believed were fake drugs from a friend.
Ackerman suggested Makinzlee was killed late that afternoon, before Witham-Jordan sent an apologetic text to Lewis for being “agitated” that week.
“What happened in that apartment that was so bad, so terrible that he reached out to Faith Lewis, that he said he didn’t want to live anymore, that everyone was better off without him?” Ackerman told the jury on Monday.
Ackerman continued: “I suggest to you that this text message, seemingly out of the blue, was his apology.”
Lewis spent almost three days on the witness stand during the trial, according to reporting from the Lincoln County News. On Monday, she and several family members sat in the gallery silently for closing arguments.
Howaniec told the jury that Lewis did not check on her daughter for much of Christmas Eve, despite knowing Makinzlee was sick and noticing on a baby monitor that she had not moved in her bed for hours.
But prosecutors said Lewis was also sick with the flu and had been in bed. According to the Lincoln County News, Lewis testified last week that she trusted Witham-Jordan.
Howaniec said in court that Lewis had received a mental health evaluation days before Makinzlee’s death and had stopped taking medication for mental illness a few months prior. Prosecutors have accused the defense of committing “character assassination” against Lewis, who Ackerman said was forthcoming with detectives.
“Ms. Lewis is not on trial,” Ackerman said in court. “You may not agree with the decisions she made that day. You can imagine that if she could go back, she would do it differently.”
