Thread by @MollyAndAMic

Back in the courtroom today--sorry I haven't been tweeting. I was inside the courtroom as opposed to in the media room. Cross examination finished up for Villegas, the RRPD detective. Then one of Bates's daughters took the stand. She's the teenager.

She said her mom pulled her out of school in Spring of 2017--just a few weeks before the end of the school year. She started homeschooling--used a computer for lessons.

At this time, she lived in Round Rock with her mom, her step dad, and her younger sister. (please note that I will not be using the girls' names.)

She went and visited her dad in Louisiana that summer. That's when she met Terry Miles. She said she and her dad were watching a movie and Miles came in. When her dad left the room, she said she started talking to Miles.

She said he asked about how old she was, saying it was a general conversation.

Then things took a shift. "He asked me if I could pull up porn for him" to watch on her phone. She says she did, but she didn't watch it. She says she did it because he asked her to.

"He had told me he had blue balls," she said, saying Miles told her "that he hadn't had sex for a long time after his wife died."

She said Miles asked her if she wanted to watch porn, she said no.

"He asked if he could have sex with me and he would pay me so I said okay," she said, recalling the first time she and Miles had sex. (This is still during the first time she met him.) @KVUE

She said they would have sex, on average, once a day. She stayed in Louisiana for the summer. Said she saw Miles for one month, then he was gone for the next month, then back again. She said when he was gone her dad and his friends had guns "in case (Miles) came by."

When Miles returned after being gone for about a month, they continued having sex.

She returned to Round Rock where she lived with her younger sister, mom, and step-dad. She said her mom and step-dad started fighting, so the mom and girls moved. She was still in contact with Miles at this time.

"Terry had asked if he could have my mom's facebook account so he could talk to her."

Prosecutor asked why she had sex with Miles. "Because he did it," she responded. She said she didn't want to have sex with him but said she and her mom wanted to keep him around to help with her step dad.

(At this point it wasn't clear to me if the mom knew they were having sex or if they just knew each other)

She then recalled Miles coming to Round Rock. She said the first time she saw him was when he woke her up one morning. She says she stayed at a hotel with him that night and had sex.

She said her mom, younger sister, Miles, and herself went to stay at an air bnb trailer for a couple of days, then they went to a "homeless village" for a little while.

At this point, court went into recess, but it should be beginning again shortly.

Ok they're back, talking about her mom and step dad. Remember, her mom works at the hospital.

She says her mom allowed her to stay at the hotel with Miles.

She says they moved to the duplex before Thanksgiving 2017.

She moved into the duplex with her younger sister, mom, and Miles. This is still in Round Rock.

Miles lived in the garage. She said he slept on a futon. He had a red bedspread. She's going over the layout of the house right now.

She says Miles picked out her room for her. It was the closest to the garage. She said she continued to have sex with him.

I'm not going to get into details. Basically she's describing the different types of sex. She also says Miles would touch her inappropriately. "He'd kiss me and touch my breasts."

She says he slapped her.

"Because he thought i did something with or another man saw me."

"There was one time where his arm was hurting and he got mad at me because i wasn't helping him enough and he threw a hot sauce bottle at me."

She says he started hitting her when a man helped move stuff into their new house in Round Rock.

She said he asked her "Do you love me?" She said if she didn't "return his affection" that "he locked me in the pantry". She said he would hold it shut. She would stay in there "until I said I love you back."

She said he wanted her to keep her sunglasses on so men wouldn't look into her eyes. If something would happen, he'd hit her in the face.

"if we were out in public he'd want to be able to see everything i'm doing."

She said she never got to see her friends once he started living with them.

"I only left once without him."

"because he would hurt me," she tells prosecutor she was scared of Miles.

"He told me to stay in the room and I was calling Terry's name to get his attention, since he didn't hear me I came out...I was standing behind him...after the person had left, he accused me of showing the guy my breasts."

"when Terry turned around, he accused me of showing my breasts to the other guy."

"He started yelling at me and he had hit me. i fell to the ground and my nose started bleeding and he kicked me in the stomach."

"It was one of the worst where he had hit me and kicked me so hard i had bruises all down my back."

Says he threw water on her and turned the fan on and air down low and she got sick for a week.

"I was trying to protect my head", she said he was hitting and kicking her.

Said her mom didn't see the bruises--they were under her clothes. She didn't tell her mom "because if I had said something, he would have done something much worse, I believe."

"The day that terry wasn't able to go with me to the doctor, he had gotten a tampon and put nail polish on the tip of it and wrapped it with tape." she said he did this to make sure no one could have sex with her while she's gone.

She says he drills the screens on the windows shut "because he thought i was either sneaking people in the house or my mom was letting me out."

She went to the doctor with her mom. She said Miles was concerned that her mom was taking her somewhere else with another guy instead of taking her to the doctor to get medicine.

Back to the tampon--she says he put that tampon in her, cut off the string "so I cant take it out and no one else can. so if someone had sex, it would go up and he'd know it was moved."
She said he then duct taped her underwear onto her.

She said he duct taped her around her thighs and wasted and says she couldn't go to the bathroom, "I had to hold it."

"He saw the duct tape was just a little bit loose on the back because the way i was sitting...he thought it had been taken off so then he hit me," she said he hit her on her face.

She said it hurt when he took the tape off but didn't tell her mother or any other adult because she was scared "because (Miles) would hurt me or my family."

She says Miles would wake her up and go make coffee and breakfast. "he had moved in because my mom wanted some protection from Joe (her stepdad)"

She said Miles did not have a job at the time. Her mom worked long hours.

She said her dad supplied child support each month. She said her mom and Miles were worried about money. She said they would argue about it.

She said Miles would drive her little sister to school.

She said she was responsible for getting her sister ready for school and cook her sister dinner.

During the day, when her mom was working and her sister was at school, she would clean the house and play video games with Miles. She said he would not let her go anywhere alone.

She said she and Miles would go to a gas station to go get beer for Miles.

She said her mother didn't know they were having sex and isn't sure if her sister knew or not

"Because one time my sister was taking (a bath or shower) and she came out ans since she was super cold, she turned the heat up and me and Terry were having sex. terry had came out because he was really hot and my sister had seen him with no clothes on."

She said she thinks her younger sister was scared of Miles. "I'm pretty sure (she) heard me yelling or crying too, and he was throwing stuff." She says he was throwing a plastic pink chair.

Sounds like a defense attorney just told Miles to stop shaking his head.

There's a pause in the courtroom now. You can hear someone taking deep breaths over the mic. The prosecutor just offered the girl a kleenex.

"She never saw anything" she said of her mom.

She said she's protective of her sister. She said if there was an argument, she would tell her to go "somewhere safe"--to her mom's room or go to her closet.

She said she would comfort her sister. "I would just try to block out the noise and tell her all the good stuff." She said they'd talk about fun things, her favorite animal.

She said they both enjoyed art.

She said she was not on birth control and never thought she was pregnant. The lawyer is asking her if Miles ever asked her if she was pregnant. She says she's not sure.

"He just would kick me or hit me," she said. "He never kicked me in the face, he only slapped me or hit me."

"I had scratch marks on my face," she recalled one time when she said Miles left a mark on her face. She said she told her mom "that me and my sister were just playing a little too rough and (she) scratched me."

She says Miles was taking care of the girls without pay. He payed her mom rent to stay in the home.

She said her mom never confronted her about what was going on with Miles.

Says Miles was 44 at the time and she was 14.

Now we're at winter break of 2017.

Both sisters and Miles were home. Their mom was at work.

Her mom took the car to work, so she said they didn't have a car that day and didn't leave the house.

Said mom gets home around 7:45 pm.

She said she doesn't remember much from that day. "Just little bits."

"What do you remember about that evening, on Dec. 29th?" Prosecutor asked. She said she was cooking dinner for her sister. She said her mom got home and went straight to her room, wearing scrubs. She said Miles was in the garage.

"Next, my mom came out of her room and I don't know exactly how the conversation started or what we were talking about and Terry had came out of the garage and they started arguing about something," she said.

"I heard my name come up in the yelling...that (she) wants to marry me." She said Miles said this and the yelling continued. "My sister runs up to me and kind of fallen to the floor." She told her to "go to the safe place"

"I like want them to stop yelling and I'm just standing there not knowing what to do because I'm not good with yelling either."

She said yelling "kind of triggers me."

"They came out of the room and I moved out of the way. they were still yelling and I was about to start heading to see how my sister is doing and I saw him throw down a punch at my mom."

She said her mom pushed a glass shelf over when she hear Miles say the marrying thing.

She said "mom is yelling at him and i guess he's trying to--he's trying to calm her down. after what he said to my mom, mom had throw the glass shelf, like thrown it over...onto the bed, where he was sitting and that's when Terry got heated...

....that's when they came out of the garage and were yelling."

"I was going to head to go see if my sister was ok when I saw him throw the punch."

"He's like yelling and he goes to make a fist and he hits her."

She said her mom falls, "she started to fall and that's when I left."

She said she went to go check on her sister. "And then Terry knocks on the door."

"I don't hear anything." She said the yelling and fighting had stopped. "I come out and i closed the door and told her to stay...I come out and I see Terry and there's blood on his face and he said he did something bad, something very bad. I told him to go clean his face."

"I came out of the room and came out and around to the kitchen area, dining room, and i saw her."

"She was laying on her back."

She said "the rug wasn't over her then." She said she checked her pulse and her body was twitching. She said she learned CPR training from her mom. She said "that there wasn't a pulse"

"Her head was kind of like caved in."

She said she didn't see anyone hit her mom in the head that night.

"That like her skull was in on her forehead and like her hairs and there's blood."

She said Terry came out, "he said I'm sorry." She said he then said "you have to go." She said she didn't call 911 "because Terry said not to."

She said she didn't call 911 because she was worried "that the same would happen to us." Us meaning her and her sister.

She said there was also blood on his shoes and pants

She said she remembers the shoes "because they were his only pair of shoes."

She said they never moved her mother's body. She said "I told Terry to" put the rug on top of her mom "because I didn't want to see her body."

She said they started packing "just the essentials."

@KVUE

She recalled seeing bleach in the bathroom, on the counter top and seeing two flashlights in the tub. She said the bleach is typically in the kitchen

She said the flashlights were usually kept int the dresser drawer in her mom's room or underneath her bed. She said when Miles moved in, he took one of the flashlights to his room and kept it underneath his bed.

She said there was also a pair of underwear in the bathtub. She said she "had hung it up to dry and it must've fallen in."

She said she could smell the bleach. She said there was not bleach in the bathtub prior to her mom getting killed.

She said he never told her about killing her. Just that he was sorry "and that he had did something bad"

She said no one else was in the house that night aside from Miles, her sister, and herself.

"I just told her we were going camping...so she wouldn't suspect anything." Said she didn't tell her sister because she didn't want to upset her.

She said "she didn't understand exactly why we were going."

"I told her that we were going to go on a camping trip because mom needed to study for school. She says she lied to her sister "to protect her."

She said her sister wasn't happy they were going. She said her sister is smart and was asking her a lot of questions.

She said she's not sure how long it took them to pack the house. She said she didn't know what time they left for Colorado.

She said she didn't think they would come back to the house. "I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen."

She said she did not physically resist Miles but said she didn't want to go. "I went with him because I was scared of what he could've done if I refused to go."

She said she thinks Miles "killed her"--talking about her mom. "Because he was the last one I saw with my mom, there was nobody else at the house, they were arguing, and then he said he had done something bad."

Recess until 1:30.

Was in the courtroom to see some of the testimony. Will work to tweet out some more of my notes shortly.

Ok, when court resumed after the lunch recess, she discussed packing up the house with Miles. She said her sister was still in her mother's room. She said she turned off the lights, blocked her sister's view of her mother's body, and walked her to the car.

She said she rode in the passenger seat and her sister was on the ground by her feet the entire way to Colorado. She said there wasn't room in the car for her to sit in the backseat.

She recalled stopping at Walmart. She says "he goes and gets the stuff he needs." The she says "we drive to the back of walmart and he tosses the phones."

She said during this time she was "just wondering what's going to happen." "Like where are we going, like what's going to happen to me and (my sister)"

She says she was afraid of Miles and of not having a mother.

"He gets in the car and we drive to the back of walmart...he parks the car and gets the phones...and takes out the batteries and tosses the phones." She said Miles threw the phones into the grass behind the walmart.

Says he took her sister's and her mom's phones. She also remembers Miles going through her mom's purse while still at the house and taking the girls' social security cards and taking one of her mom's credit cards.

Back in the car: "he had taken out (my sister's) art supplies" Why? "because we didn't have room for it."

"We were on the road for a while. Terry had said he was going to text his mom that something bad had happened to Tonya," she said, saying Miles said he was going to say it was someone Bates was involved with "so he wouldn't be suspected."

Back at walmart--she remembers Miles also took off the car's antenna and took out the blue tooth speaker "because he didn't want us to be found."

She said when they went to they bathroom he told her "to keep my head down and keep the hoodie on...so people couldn't see our faces."

In Colorado: "Terry had stopped at the first dispensary and had gotten a pipe and some weed."

"We found this cliff and he took the phone and the battery out and smashed the battery and the phone and threw it off the cliff." (from what it sounds like she and Miles shared a phone that was then destroyed.)

She recalls him taking off the front license plate of the care and taking a sticker off the car.

At the campground: She said Miles told her to say "that somebody came over that night and we were told to leave and that when we came back it had happened and that we never did anything together." She said he also told her not to say "that he hit me".

She said this is what she told police "because I was scared and had to listen to him." She said she feared "that he could get out and come hurt me if I said anything."

She said she was scared he could come get her "for a very long time"

She said she and Miles did not have sex on the was to Colorado. She said they had sex at the campground and she had to wipe up the mess because she was on her period.

She recalls cutting her hair at the campground "because me and my sister had really bad lice and so we wouldn't be recognized."

"(Miles) had taken the clothes he was currently wearing and burned them...because there was blood on them." She said he kept his shoes because it was his only pair. She said there was blood on his shoes.

She said in the car: "he wanted sex and I didn't want to but he did it anyway."

She said her sister was confused at the campsite and remembers it was "cold enough to be a fridge."

She recalls when the police show up. She said a car started following them. "Terry suspected it could've been a cop so we were on the road for a bit."

She says more cops pulled up. "Terry was saying 'I love you guys' and that it was done."

At the hospital: this is where she says she told her sister their mom was dead. She said she sis not allow the doctor's to do a physical exam "Cause they would've found DNA." When asked what DNA? She said "sperm." When asked whose she said "Terry's."

She went on to talk about interviews with police and recalls that it was tough to talk about what happened. she says now "in general, talking about it, yes, I've gotten more comfortable." she says that comes from talking to people she feels safe with.

She identified Miles in the courtroom. She says he killed her mother, says he had sex with her, and says he took her to Colorado. when asked if she wanted to go with him, she says "yes and no. yes because i was scared and I wanted to follow his rules so he wouldn't hurt me."

"He had thrown the perfume bottle on the floor...so you couldn't smell her body." She recalls a moment back at the house where she says Miles tried to mask the body's scent.

This is when cross-examination started. This is still going on. For the record, I believe she has been on the stand since around 9:45 this morning.

It's clear from the defense's questioning that she doesn't remember much of what happened after police found her. They are asking her a lot about different interviews and she's replying "I don't know" to a lot of their questions.

She discusses her step dad and is asked about his drinking and if he would get into a rage. "The rage was more towards what he tried to do to Terry."

She said her step dad pulled a gun, "I think a shotgun," and pointed it at Miles and also pointed it at other people in the apartment complex.

She says her step dad was mad that her mom wanted to have a relationship with other people. She recalls when her step dad tried to chase her and her mom and Miles and got into an accident and got arrested.

She also said her step dad showed her pictures of her mom in sexual activity. This happened when she got home from Louisiana.

"It was so long ago that I don't remember." I just heard her say this over the speakers in the media room. Again, she doesn't remember much--this is a theme throughout the cross examination.

She earlier admitted that she'd said conflicting stories. She said this is because she was scared of Miles.

Talks about living in a foster home and that her sister was with family. She went through counseling.

She said she moved around a lot in the months leading up to her mother's death

Ok, I think you're pretty much caught up now. I have to work on some scripting for the shows, but I'll still try to keep up with tweets.

Defense has passed the witness. I said this before, but, from what she's saying on the stand, she says she doesn't remember much from the time after police found her. She's now been excused from the courtroom.

Next witness is up. Dr. Lauren Edelman, deputy medical examiner at the Travis County medical examiner's office.

She performed the medical examination on Tonya Bates. Bates is the girls' mother and was found dead inside the home. Her oldest daughter testified earlier that she thinks Miles killed her mother.

Trying to write scripts/get ready for the live shots while also updating web--so I'm sorry the tweets aren't coming as quickly. She's talking about the process of the medical examination.

Cause of death: blunt head trauma. Says that's injuries that are fatal from "blows to the head"

"It was very clearly blunt head trauma," she said. She said the manner of death is homicide.

I have to head outside for the 5 pm live shot. Hopefully I can get back inside after to keep listening in on the trial. See you on @KVUE in a few

Ok I'm back inside. We're still hearing from the medical examiner. Playing a bit of catch up, but it sounds like she's talking about the wound to Bates's head.

Says there "are two distinct, large, gaping lacerations in the head." She says there is a section of tissue still intact, so that's why she knows it was two different injuries.

An image of Bates' face just appeared in the courtroom. This is one of the first images we've been allowed to see in the media room. This is one I wish I wouldn't have seen.

Her face almost looks dented and is very discolored. I'm not going to be too detailed in describing this one.

Another shot of Bates' head appears. This time it's after her hair was shaved off. Again, another photo I wish I hadn't seen. Whatever happened to this woman, it's heartbreaking.

A tough thing I've learned about federal court: I have a constant internal debate of wanting to be inside the courtroom but also wanting to be able to live tweet the happenings for you all.

She's now discussing the packaging of the bloody clothing. I take back my last tweet. I think, right now, I'm ok with just hearing things and not seeing them.

Prosecutors have passed the witness. Court is in recess until tomorrow morning.

On that note, I'll be live in a bit on @KVUE at 6 p.m. I'm not sure if I'll be back tomorrow or not--that's up to the managers to decide!

Judge is talking to the lawyers now that the jury has stepped out. He tells them he does not have more than 3 weeks for this trial. Court is in recess.