Kimberly A. Mawson listens with no reaction as the jury foreman reads the guilty verdict yesterday at the Kent County Courthouse, in Warwick. At right is her lawyer, Kevin Bristow.

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The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

WARWICK — In a moment, it was over. No tears. No shouts. For the split second after a jury found Kimberly A. Mawson guilty of killing her 19-month-old daughter, Jade, the courtroom was silent.

Four flights down, Curt Dorau was asking for a favor.

“I was asking God to please help me,” said Dorau, Jade’s biological father. “He answered my prayers. I can sleep at night.”

On Dec. 2, 2002, Jade collapsed on the living room floor of an Elmwood Avenue apartment and never regained consciousness. An ambulance rushed her to Hasbro Children’s Hospital, where she had surgery to relieve pressure in her brain. Doctors found bruises on her body, an inexplicable vaginal wound and a severe blow to the head that would prove fatal. She was declared brain dead two days later.

In the years that followed, police fastened onto Mawson, of Winstead, Conn., as a suspect. Mawson and Jade spent much of the morning alone. Later, Mawson went to a store and left the child in the care of her then-boyfriend, Daniel Fusco, and Jade collapsed. Mawson was arrested and charged with the crime in May 2005, and released on $100,000 bail with surety. She has remained free on bail throughout the trial. The guilty verdict means jurors think that Mawson’s actions showed malice or intentional disregard for her daughter’s life. She could face up to life in prison.

Despite the second-degree murder conviction, Judge Edwin J. Gale decided to allow Mawson to stay free under the same conditions as her prior bail agreement.

“She’s been here early every day and has never failed to appear or questioned the verdict of the court,” Gale said in his ruling.

Assistant Attorney General William Ferland objected. Mawson has no ties to the community, he said, and the heavy sentence she faces provides an incentive for her to flee. Gale added stipulations to Mawson’s bail, requiring her to sign a waiver of extradition, and check in via phone with the probation department weekly until her next court appearance. Her sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 18.

“It was never in dispute that the defendant was alone with her daughter for three hours on the day that Jade was viciously beaten,” Attorney General Patrick Lynch said in a statement. “Now, with the jury’s verdict, Jade’s killer is not in dispute, either, and the facts that convinced the jury are as sickening as they are heartbreaking. … The murder of an infant is among the most heinous crimes imaginable, and after five years as attorney general, the horror of a case like this remains extraordinary.”

Defense lawyer Kevin Bristow said he would file a motion for a new trial, and probably an appeal to the verdict.

“I believed in the arguments I presented,” he said. “I didn’t hunt and look for things and say ‘that could be useful.’ I thought there was enough evidence for a jury to acquit her, but the jury saw otherwise. Now, we have to move forward.”

Courtroom 4E slowly began to fill as court staff moved in a flurry of swinging doors, cackling radios and rushed footsteps to assemble the lawyers just before 1:30 p.m. yesterday as news spread through the Kent County Court House: There was a verdict.

Bristow was first through the courtroom’s double doors. A solemn-faced Mawson appeared next, followed closely after by her father, John Mawson, who attended court faithfully throughout the trial. The prosecutors walked in from an inner doorway, their faces in a focused gaze.

Finally came the jurors. Unreadable throughout the trial, a few jurors scanned the room as they walked in, allowing their eyes to linger at the defense table. After the verdict, Bristow asked the court to poll the jury, allowing each juror to state his or her vote aloud. With each vote, Mawson seemed to prepare herself for what she expected to come next.

“Guilty,” said the foreman. Mawson slid the gold bracelets from her wrist. “Guilty.” She unlatched her necklace. “Guilty.” She fastened the jewelry together and placed them on the bench behind her. “Guilty.” She sat immovable, staring straight ahead.

Downstairs, Dorau paced the lobby of the courthouse awaiting the verdict. He’d attended much of the trial with his wife, Jessica, piling into the car around 7 a.m. each day to make the two-hour trek from Southington, Conn., to the courthouse on Quaker Lane.

“Jade kept me focused,” said Dorau, who has a tattoo of Jade’s name between his shoulder blades. “I had to be here. I had to do it for my daughter.”

They spent most of yesterday in the hallway outside the courtroom where Mawson’s fate would be decided. Jessica Dorau sat in the windowsill reading while her husband walked a short stretch of the hallway, not daring to go more than a courtroom or two down from 4E. All day, he walked. Sometimes talking, mostly pacing, but almost always walking.

News of the verdict was delivered to Dorau. Overtaken by quiet emotion, Dorau and his wife held each other for minutes, tears staining their faces. Holding a photo of Jade taken at six months, Dorau tried to smile.

“I feel happy inside that it’s finally over,” Dorau said. “That she got justice. But I’d rather she’d be here right now. But now I can rest at night knowing someone is going to pay for it.”

tbuford@projo.com