The first week of the three-week Comanche County jury trial docket will include two homicide trials.
Prospective jurors will report to the Comanche County Courthouse at 8 a.m. Monday to begin the selection process for the week’s trials.
All trials are subject to last minute plea agreements or continuations.
On Monday, a woman accused of allowing her 3-year-old daughter to die from a 17-pound tumor in January 2019 will begin trial in Comanche County District Judge Jay Walker’s courtroom.
Bonnie Beth Mills-Lilly, 48, was found competent following a November 2024 jury trial and will be tried for a felony charge of first-degree manslaughter, records indicate. The crime is punishable by no less than four years in prison.
Mills-Lilly has been previously declared incompetent and has been housed at least twice in mental institutions according to testimony. However, no evidence of erratic behavior was provided during Thursday’s trial.
Mills-Lilly and her husband Henry Clarence Lilly III, 56, were charged in January 2019 for not providing medical care to their daughter, “Baby Beth,” which led to her death, according to the charges.
According to the State Medical Examiner’s autopsy report, Bonnie Beth Lilly died Jan. 3, 2019, as a result of rhabdomyosarcoma. Her manner of death was identified as natural. The report states the 17-pound tumor comprised half the girl’s body weight.
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of cancer of soft tissue (such as muscle), connective tissue (such as tendon or cartilage), or bone. Its symptoms include: a persistent lump or swelling in parts of the body; bulging of the eye or a swollen eyelid, headache and nausea, trouble urinating or having bowel movements, blood in the urine, and bleeding from the nose, throat, vagina or rectum.
The parents were arrested and their other children placed into DHS custody. They are now living with relatives.
Following trial in February 2024, Henry Lilly was found guilty by a jury of first-degree manslaughter and child abuse.
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