Jurors convicted Tyler Witham-Jordan in the death of 3-year-old Makinzlee Handrahan, while records continued to raise questions about earlier reports of bruising and state oversight.
BATH, Maine — A jury has convicted Tyler Witham-Jordan of depraved indifference murder in the Christmas 2022 death of 3-year-old Makinzlee Handrahan, but the verdict also renewed attention on child welfare concerns reported months before the girl was found dead in Edgecomb.
The criminal case ended one central dispute by identifying the person a second jury believed killed the child. It did not settle the broader concern that surrounded the prosecution from the start: whether adults and agencies saw signs of danger before the fatal beating and failed to stop it. Court records, testimony and local reporting showed DHHS had already been alerted in October 2022 after daycare workers noticed injuries, placing the March 2026 verdict inside a longer story about warning signs, response and accountability.
According to court documents, DHHS opened an investigation in October 2022 after Makinzlee’s daycare reported a scratch, bruises and swelling under one eye. The explanation given to authorities, records said, was that the marks came from a cat scratch and a fall on stairs. The agency later declined to discuss details publicly, citing state and federal confidentiality laws that sharply limit comment on child protective matters. Even with those limits, the earlier visit became a major backdrop to the case because it showed the home had already drawn official attention about two months before the child’s death. Former Maine Sen. Bill Diamond, a child advocate quoted in local coverage, said that timeline would bring public pressure on the state system.
The killing itself happened during the Christmas holiday weekend. Prosecutors said Witham-Jordan, then living with Faith Lewis and her children, grew angry while dealing with opioid withdrawal and frustration that Makinzlee had been sick in the days before Christmas. They told jurors he beat the girl with a hairbrush on Christmas Eve, then left her in the bottom bunk bed where her mother found her the next morning. Lewis called 911 at about 7:37 a.m. on Dec. 25, 2022, telling dispatchers she thought her daughter was dead. Investigators said Witham-Jordan could be heard on that call saying, “I’m f—ed” and “I’m finished.” First responders pronounced the child dead at the scene.
Medical and forensic details later turned the death into a homicide prosecution. The medical examiner ruled Makinzlee died of blunt force trauma and documented severe bruising and internal bleeding. Prosecutors said a plastic hairbrush was found broken with a large clump of the girl’s hair still in it. They also said Witham-Jordan’s DNA was found under Makinzlee’s fingernails and on the waistband of her bloody diaper. Those findings helped the state argue that the fatal injuries were not accidental and were inflicted by the defendant. Defense attorneys answered by trying to cast Lewis as the true suspect, but prosecutors said her DNA was not found on key items and described her as a victim.
The case then moved through an unusually long path before a conviction. Witham-Jordan was arrested in October 2023 and charged with murder. His first trial did not produce a final verdict, ending instead in a mistrial. Prosecutors retried the case in Sagadahoc County Superior Court, where a jury of eight men and four women heard nine days of evidence before convicting him on March 3, 2026. The retrial mattered because it gave the state another chance not only to prove the killing, but to show that the evidence held up under repeated challenge. For the child’s family, the verdict brought relief. For the public, it reopened interest in what earlier intervention might have changed.
That second question remains harder to answer in public because Maine law restricts disclosure of child welfare records. Reporting on the case made clear that officials could confirm very little beyond the existence of prior involvement. What is known is narrow but significant: daycare workers noticed injuries; a report was made; an explanation was accepted; and Makinzlee was dead by Christmas morning. Those facts have made the case larger than a single conviction in the eyes of many local residents. It has become part homicide case, part test of how much the state can see, verify and prevent when concerns about a child surface before a lethal assault.
Witham-Jordan now stands convicted, and sentencing is the next major step. As of March 31, 2026, public reporting reviewed here had not set out a detailed sentencing date. The legal case has moved into punishment, while the unresolved debate over missed warnings is likely to remain long after the court calendar advances.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.