A Texas appeals court has upheld the capital murder conviction of a Beaumont man in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend, whose remains were discovered in a shallow grave across the Louisiana border nearly six years ago. The Ninth Court of Appeals, based in Beaumont, affirmed that Jonathan Menard was properly convicted of the 2021 killing of Kayla Rice, who was pregnant at the time of her death.
The ruling, reported by 12newsnow.com, closes out at least one chapter in a case that has dragged on for years. Rice had not been seen or heard from since late November 2020, and her family reported her missing in December of that year, according to KFDM. Her body was not found until February 11, 2021, when it turned up in a shallow grave near Vinton, Louisiana, just across the state line from Beaumont.
Kayla Rice's age at the time of her death has been reported differently across coverage: 12newsnow.com's seed reporting lists her as 36, while contemporaneous coverage from the same outlet identified her as 33 when her remains were found. Either way, Rice was carrying a child when she died. Because she was six months pregnant in November 2020, Menard was charged with killing both Kayla Rice and her unborn child, Kyan Rice, per the station's reporting.
How Investigators Tied Menard to the Crime
Call-detail records showed that Menard's and Rice's phones traveled together from Beaumont to Vinton on November 30, 2020, the same report notes. That digital trail became a key piece of evidence as investigators pieced together Rice's final hours. A Beaumont police detective also said Rice's own 2005 Honda Accord was used to transport human remains across state lines to dispose of evidence, with the vehicle later spray-painted and its license plates changed, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.
An autopsy report cited in that same account found that Rice died as a result of asphyxiation and strangulation while carrying Kyan Dexter Rice, her unborn child. A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Menard for capital murder and tampering with physical evidence in April 2021, formalizing the charges that would carry through to trial.
Death Penalty Waived Before Trial
In August 2022, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office announced it would waive the death penalty in Menard's case, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. State prosecutor Phillip Smith said at the time that proving future dangerousness would have been a very difficult task based on the amount of criminal history that Menard had accumulated. Defense attorney Ryan Gertz noted that jury selection typically takes just a day in a standard murder case, but could stretch four to six weeks when death is on the table — a factor that shaped how the case ultimately proceeded.
When the case went to trial, a jury in Judge Raquel West's court took only 15 minutes to convict Menard of capital murder, according to KFDM's earlier reporting. Judge West then sentenced Jonathan Paul Menard, 38, to life in prison without parole, since prosecutors were not seeking execution. That sentence, and the conviction underlying it, is what the Ninth Court of Appeals has now affirmed.
Nearly six years after Kayla Rice disappeared from Beaumont, the legal case built around her death has withstood its first major challenge on appeal.
