SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- After a 16-day trial, a Schenectady County jury has found Persia Nelson guilty of killing her 10-month-old daughter in March 2024. NEWS10 Reporter Payton Cavanaugh was in the courtroom when Nelson was convicted on a unanimous vote of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and endangering the welfare of a child after killing her daughter, Halo Branton, by dropping her down a utility pipe.

Closing arguments in the trial were heard on October 15, recapping the evidence of a fight between Nelson and her boyfriend the night Branton died, surveillance video from the GE campus in Schenectady, and Nelson's stained clothing from lying on the ground by the hole the police found Branton in.

“Whether she was crying, or contemplating her decision, or praying,

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