News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Defendant Aaron Trout reacts to the jury’s guilty verdict next to his attorney Bill Pfeifer in Alcona County’s 23rd Circuit Court on Wednesday. Trout was found guilty by the jury of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse.

HARRISVILLE — Aaron Trout was found guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse as the Trout trial finally concludes.

Trout was facing murder and child abuse charges after being accused of the murder of 2-year-old Jayde McDonnell, the child of Trout’s then-girlfriend Adrienne Pavelka and Gannon McDonnell.

The jury came to its decision after over two hours of deliberation that saw them overview the evidence and testimony presented throughout the trial.

Prior to the verdict, the defense concluded their proof process with the completion of Gannon McDonnell’s testimony and the testimony of Zackeriy Ellsworth, an inmate at the Iosco County jail who shared a cell with Trout and exchanged communications with Pavelka when she was at Iosco county jail.

Once the defense was finished, both Alcona County Prosecutor Thomas Weichel and Trout’s attorney Bill Pfeifer gave their closing arguments to the jury.

For the prosecution’s closing argument, Weichel played a video that compiled numerous statements and comments from Trout from various interviews and interrogations that illustrated how his story of what had happened to Jayde McDonnell, as well as his awareness and involvement of it, kept changing over time.

While speaking to the jury, Weichel assured them that Pavelka’s version of events should be believed because it is being corroborated by evidence collected by experts, like Neuropathologist Amanda Fisher-Hubbard and Pathology Professor Edmund Donoghue, whose testimony supports Pavelka’s claim that Jayde McDonnell was beaten to death.

“Her testimony is corroborated by the medical evidence,” Weichel said to the jury.

Weichel makes it clear to the jury that Pavelka is also culpable in McDonnell’s death but that her testimony is both necessary and sufficient to prove that Trout is the one who ultimately carried out the act.

“Two-year-old Jayde McDonnell died a brutal death,” said Weichel. “There were two people in that house, Aaron Trout and Adrienne Pavelka, both of them are responsible…..sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil’s girlfriend to get to the devil.”

For the defense’s closing arguments, Pfeifer reminded the jury that it was on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trout was guilty and that the facts of the case also point to the idea that it was in fact Pavelka who was responsible for Mcdonnell’s death.

“This isn’t a balancing test,” said Pfeifer. “We don’t have to prove anything to you…. Sometimes the devil’s girlfriend is the devil, sometimes you make a deal with the wrong person.”

After closing arguments ended, the jury was given their instructions by Judge Laura Frawley and opted to begin deliberation immediately.

Trout will be sentenced on Feb. 7.