A murder trial began Monday for a woman accused of beating her 2-year-old goddaughter to death almost five years ago. 

Shawntrell Dawkins faces charges of murder, capital murder and injury to a child in the death of Milayna Harris. 

Dawkins has been in jail for five years awaiting trial. 

KFOX14 first reported in 2008 that Dawkins and her husband, former Fort Bliss soldier staff Sgt. Nakia Dawkins, were arrested in connection with Milayna's death.

The couple were the guardians of Milayna and her 4-year-old brother after her mother, Sheree Harris, left her daughter in the care of the Dawkins while she was on deployment in Germany and their father was in Iraq.

Some jurors covered their mouths, wiped tears from their eyes and looked away when the state presented graphic photos of Milayna's extensive injuries, revealing bruises, scratches and welts on the toddler's legs, stomach and face. 

The lead homicide detective assigned to the case, Gonzalo Chavarria, testified the tiny toddler had "multiple injuries, multiple trauma on the entirety of her body." 

In 2009, Nakia Dawkins was found guilty of injury to a child.

At his trial, he testified his wife was the one who inflicted the 10 head injuries to Milayna.

The jury deadlocked on his sentencing and he is awaiting a new sentencing hearing.

Attorney Stuart Leeds alleges Nakia Dawkins is the only one responsible for the child's death and it wasn't until after he returned home from his deployment in Iraq that problems began to surface. 

A next-door neighbor testified she often heard children crying and adults yelling. 

"It sounded like they were being hit," she told the court. 

The neighbor said she called police to report the disturbances. 

"It made me uncomfortable," she said. 

But a police patrol officer who went to do a welfare check on the Dawkins' home said he didn't find any evidence of abuse. However, he did admit he did not get close enough to examine the children or remove clothing to see if they had other injuries.

Jurors watched a nearly 45-minute taped statement Nakia Dawkins made to detectives the night Milayna died. 

He admitted he and his wife would beat the child with fists and with a belt when she would go to the bathroom in her pants. Nakia admitted to having the heavy hand but said the couple administered the punishments "half and half." He said Milayna would frequently self-inflict injuries by scratching herself. 

He also told detectives they would frequently put the children in time out "just to let them know who was in control." Nakia said he didn't know what happened to Milayna the night she died and speculated she fell down the stairs. 

Detectives asked him, "who killed the child?" To which Nakia responded, "it wasn't me."

Defense argued there appeared to be red marks on Nakia's hands and not on Shawntrells hands. 

Stuart Leeds represents Shawntrell and Theresa Caballero represents Nakia. The trial continues Tuesday.