Inset: Tyler Witham-Jordan (Two Bridges Regional Jail). Background: The area in Maine where Witham-Jordan killed his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter (Google Maps).
A 31-year-old man in Maine is facing decades in prison for killing his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter who was found dead in her bed on Christmas Day. Authorities said he beat the toddler to death while he was "agitated" from opioid withdrawals and because the victim had been sick in the days leading up to the holiday.
A jury in Lincoln County on Tuesday found Tyler Witham-Jordan guilty on one count of depraved indifference murder in the 2022 slaying of Makinzlee Handrahan.
The verdict came down after a nine-day trial in Sagadahoc County Superior Court. It was Witham-Jordan's second trial after the first ended in a mistrial.
The murder
At 7:37 a.m. on Dec. 25, 2022, emergency medical personnel responded to a 911 call concerning a home off Route 1 in Edgecomb regarding a 3-year-old girl found unresponsive in her bed, according to a report from The Lincoln County News.
The victim's mother called 911 and said to the dispatcher, "Oh my God, I think my daughter's dead," Portland-based CBS affiliate WGME reported. Witham-Jordan can also be heard on the call saying, "I'm f—ed" and "I'm finished."
Upon arriving, first responders pronounced Makinzlee dead at the scene and transported her body to MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital's Miles Campus for an autopsy.
Maine's deputy chief medical examiner performed the autopsy and found Makinzlee suffered severe bruising all over her face and body as well as internal bleeding in her abdomen and skull. Her manner of death was ruled a homicide and the cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.
The trial
During the trial, prosecutors asserted Witham-Jordan was addicted to opioids and experiencing withdrawals and was "agitated" with all of his girlfriend's children that Christmas morning, the Portland Press Herald reported. He was particularly frustrated with Makinzlee because she had been sick the week before the holiday.
Witham-Jordan also reportedly believed the drugs he purchased the morning of Christmas Eve were fake.
The state asserted that Witham-Jordan lost his temper and beat the child to death with a hairbrush on Christmas Eve.
The brush, which was broken and had a "huge" clump of Makinzlee's hair stuck to it, was presented as evidence during the trial. Prosecutors also said that the defendant's DNA was found underneath Makinzlee's fingernails and on the waistband of her bloody diaper, Portland CW affiliate WMTW reported.
"All 27 pounds of her was killed, quietly and discreetly. No one heard her die," Assistant Attorney General Lia Bogue reportedly told jurors. "He wanted to get together with his connection on Christmas Eve because he needed more drugs."
Witham-Jordan also sent a text to the victim's mother, believed to have been sent immediately after killing Makinzlee, in which he apologized for being "agitated." Prosecutors reportedly asserted that the text was also "his apology" for killing the child.
The mistrial
Witham-Jordan's first trial began in December 2024 and the proceedings included much of the same evidence presented in the latest trial, including testimony from the victim's mother, WGME reported.
But during the first trial, when the victim's mother was shown photographs of her daughter's bruised and beaten body, she broke down on the witness stand and screamed at Witham-Jordan, "What did you do to my baby?"
The judge reasoned that the mother's reaction compromised Witham-Jordan's right to a fair trial.
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