A jury has been seated and a trial is underway for the mother of three-year-old Amoura Smallwood, who was brutally beaten to death in February 2023.
Alexandra Ward, 22, faces charges of complicity to commit murder and complicity to commit first-degree strangulation in connection to Smallwood’s death.
Smallwood died on Feb. 19, 2023, from blunt force injuries to the head and body due to non-accidental injuries. Those injuries were inflicted upon Smallwood by Ward’s then-boyfriend, Jordan Taylor, 24, of Corbin, who Ward left in care of Smallwood and another infant child despite only knowing him for just a few weeks.
On the day she died, Smallwood had been in the sole care of Taylor since approximately 8:30 a.m.
Taylor entered a guilty plea to charges of murder, first-degree sodomy and first-degree strangulation in October 2024. He has since been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The 16-person jury selected to hear Ward’s case was seated at approximately 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. That jury is comprised of eight men and eight women. Four of the 16 jurors are alternates and will not participate in deliberations once all the evidence has been presented.
Tuesday’s proceedings began with opening statements, which allow attorneys from each side to directly address the jury and provide them with an outline of the facts of their case and what they intend to prove over the course of the trial.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronnie Bowling spoke to jurors first, using his opening statement to focus on what he detailed as Ward’s failure to intervene and protect Smallwood despite being aware of Taylor’s abuse.
“Today is Tuesday. Amoura should be in school right now. She should be learning her ABCs…she should be playing with her friends. She deserved to be loved, protected, safe—like every kid should. She got none of those things. She’s dead.
“[Ward’s] relationship with Jordan Taylor was more important to her than her daughter, and that’s why we’re here. Amoura paid the price,” said Bowling. “It’s not that she didn’t see the warning signs, she just didn’t care.”
As part of his opening statement, Bowling showed jurors some of the text messages between Ward and Taylor that were extracted from the pair’s phones. In those texts, Taylor made pointed threats toward Ward, including one that read, ““I’ll kill you…you would be unrecognizable. The autopsy will come back unsolvable.”
The texts from Taylor also made threats toward Ward’s children, specifically Smallwood.
Ward also allegedly made multiple internet searches for how to quickly remove bruises and scratches in an attempt to cover up Taylor’s abuse of Smallwood.
And Taylor’s abuse of Smallwood was extensive.
Smallwood had bruising from the top of her head to her feet, according to Bowling. The damage to Smallwood’s brain was so severe that she suffered multiple brain bleeds and, following her death, had to be removed from her skull because it swelled to more than 127 percent of its normal size.
Bowling told jurors that the doctor who inspected Smallwood’s brain noted that even if she had survived, she would have suffered permanent brain damage to at least four separate areas of her brain.
When Taylor called 911 on the day of Smallwood’s death, he told dispatchers that the girl was unresponsive after having fell off of a futon. Bowling played the 911 call for jurors during Tuesday’s proceedings. In the recording, Taylor stated that Smallwood was not breathing and he could not find a pulse. The dispatcher attempted to talk Taylor through the process of how to administer CPR, though it was not successful.
Five first responders testified Tuesday—the dispatcher who fielded Taylor’s call, two volunteer fire personnel and two EMTs. Of the ones that physically responded to the scene, all of them testified that Smallwood had visible bruises and injuries covering her entire body. They also testified that the bruising was in various stages of healing, meaning that they weren’t all sustained at one time.
“If five different strangers that didn’t know Amoura could notice within five seconds of seeing her that she was being abused, why couldn’t her mother? She did. She just didn’t do anything,” said Bowling during his opening statement.
Ward’s attorney, John Combs, did not address jurors Tuesday, instead electing to reserve his opening statement.
Ward’s trial will continue this morning (Wednesday).
Bowling told the News Journal that his planned witnesses for Wednesday will include the various medical professionals that tended to Smallwood prior to and after her death, as well as Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley. Bowling said he expects to wrap up his presentation of evidence sometime Friday.
Combs is expected to begin presenting his side of the case beginning Monday. The trial is still set to take approximately two weeks to finish.
Combs had attempted on two separate occasions to have Ward’s trial moved outside of Whitley County, though both attempts were unsuccessful.
Ward currently remains jailed in the Whitley County Detention Center.
