A woman suspected of killing her girlfriend’s 8-year-old daughter was found guilty of murder and 19 other offenses Friday afternoon in Gwinnett County.
In November 2021, a jury deliberated for less than two hours and found Celeste Owens guilty of killing Nicole Amari Hall. Judge Angela Duncan then sentenced Owens to life in prison with no possibility of release, plus 235 years. Duncan described the crimes as “the most heinous evil that I have ever seen” during her tenure.
“You will never see the light of day to perpetrate this type of behavior and cruelty and evilness upon another person,” Duncan said.
Owens did not testify in her defense before the jury began deliberating on Friday afternoon. Throughout her punishment, she remained silent and motionless as the jury read her fate aloud.
Prosecutors told the court that Owens assaulted not just Amari but also her girlfriend’s other two children.
“This defendant was directly abusing not just Amari but all of the children,” Sabrina Nizam, deputy chief assistant district attorney, said during closing arguments. “The defendant helped beat the living life out of Amari.”
Owens’ defense attorney, Robert Greenwald, claimed there was no evidence that Owens killed the infant.
The jury found Owens guilty of four charges of murder, concealing the death of another, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, making false statements, and three counts of first-degree cruelty to minors.
The girl’s mother had reported her missing, leading to the first of two trials involving her death. Brittany Nicole Hall’s trial is currently pending.
Barbara Wright, the children’s grandmother, spoke to the jury during Friday’s sentencing. Wright, Brittany Hall’s mother, shares custody of her other two grandchildren with her husband.
“My heart is broken in millions and millions of pieces,” Wright said. “My heart is empty. I miss Amari so much.”
Brittany Hall informed police. Amari went missing from the Gwinnett motel where the family had been staying. Her mother stated that a Tweety Bird jacket and blue and white pajamas were the last items seen on the glasses-wearing small girl.
However, investigators quickly came to believe the girl had never gone missing.
Gwinnett police Chief J.D. McClure discovered Amari’s body two days later in a forested area of a DeKalb County community, about 15 miles from the HomeTowne Studios at 7049 Jimmy Carter Boulevard. Brittany Hall and her three children were staying with Owens.
The discovery of the girl’s body led to the arrest of both Hall and Owens. Eventually, their charges escalated to murder.
“My heart goes out to the extended family of Amari Hall,” McClure said after Amari was found. “We worked diligently on this case. The investigators, from our uniform patrol officers who went out and searched the area, we worked extremely hard, and unfortunately, these are not the results we had hoped for.”
Brittany Hall and her children had previously lived with her parents, Wright stated. But Hall had moved out and had not told Wright where they were residing.
During the trial, jurors witnessed cellphone recordings of Owens molesting the three children. Upon presenting the tapes in court, a Gwinnett detective seemed to suppress her tears.
According to arrest warrants, Amari died as a result of repeated hits to the head, and Brittany Hall waited nearly two days before reporting her daughter missing. Investigators originally stated that Owens beat the girl, then placed her body in a trash bag and abandoned it.
A doctor testified that Amari died of blunt force trauma and battered child syndrome.
Zaire Hall, now nine, testified that one morning, her mother and Owens were unable to wake her sister.
“She got put in a container with a lid and put in the trunk of a car,” Zaire testified. “They took her to the ‘bad kids’ hospital.”
Testimony revealed the use of the “bad kids hospital” to intimidate the children.