YORK, Neb. — Melanie Haynes was 2 years old when the nightmare began two years ago.
Her father, Sgt. Kevin Haynes, was stationed in Afghanistan, a soldier with the U.S. Army, when he received word that his daughter was in a coma. Multiple injuries, the doctors at a Georgia hospital told him. Her condition: gravely critical.
Haynes was on an airplane, making his way back to the United States, when he learned that his little girl was dead.
"She had just started calling me 'Daddy,' " the 2003 graduate of York High School said.
His time with his daughter was limited but treasured.
He was present for her birth, on a short leave from Iraq. After his tour there was finished, he reconnected with the vibrant toddler. He was able to spend time with her before he was sent to Afghanistan, and they shared time together regularly over Skype.
Melanie's grandparents, Mike and Lynda Haynes, were at home in York that February day in 2010, shocked and devastated when they got the unbelievable news.
"I feel guilty," Lynda Haynes said. "We'd been talking about wanting to bring Melanie to stay here with us until Kevin got back from his deployment. But money issues held us back from making the flight to get her. I wish I knew then what I know now."
What she knows now is that her granddaughter was living in the presence of a man who would eventually kill her.
"Nearly two years ago today, this nightmare started," Lynda Haynes said by telephone late Friday afternoon. "The jury, just now, went into deliberations. I pray we will have justice for our little Melanie."
Two hours later, the jury declared Kevin Johnson guilty on eight felony counts. Johnson was convicted of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and cruelty to children. He is now facing the possibility of life in prison.
"We called our Kevin right away," Lynda Haynes said. "He's in Germany and couldn't be in Georgia for the trial. But he could rest assured that Mike and I and our younger son were there, standing for our Melanie, seeking justice, to know the monster who did this to her — that he will pay for what he did and he can never again do this to an innocent child."
Johnson, the live-in boyfriend of Kevin Haynes' former wife, Angela, was alone with Melanie when she suffered the injuries. Investigators said he initially offered several different stories, and he did the same at the trial. He said the child fell off a couch, slipped in a bathtub and hit her head on a dresser.
But doctors testified that Melanie's injuries were far too serious to have happened in the way Johnson described. They said she was the victim of "sudden acceleration and deceleration." She also had two skull fractures and a broken orbital bone — inconsistent with a fall.
Autopsy findings showed several dozen bruises on Melanie's body. There was also internal bleeding in her eyes, and the soft tissue in the deep part of her neck appeared to be damaged to the extent usually seen only in a car crash.
"The only good thing was that the coroner said she didn't suffer," Lynda Haynes said. "There's some comfort in that, somehow."
During the trial, Johnson's 911 call was played.
"He was calm," the grandmother said. "And when he first entered the courtroom, he walked in with a smile on his face. A smile. He had no reaction to the jury's verdict, no remorse. He never did. He had no tears, no nothing."
Lynda said her son is doing better these days. Kevin Haynes married a woman who had a 3-year-old son. Another son joined the family in July and they are expecting a baby girl in May.
"Last Christmas we were all together," Lynda Haynes said shortly after the verdict came in. "There was so much sound in the house, with the grandkids. It was wonderful. But I couldn't stop imagining what it would have been like to have our sweet little Melanie with us.
"She would have been 4 years old by now," Haynes said, her voice trailing off.
"We finally, after two years, have some closure," she said. "It's so tough. She was my first grandchild. I haven't been able to sleep. Hopefully now I can."
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