The Indian-American foster father of three-year-old Sherin Mathews was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for the girl’s death, PTI reported. The child was found dead in the United States city of Dallas in October 2017, two weeks after her adoptive father Wesley Mathews reported her missing.

Wesley Mathews, who pleaded guilty on Monday to a lesser charge of injury to a child, was originally charged with capital murder by authorities in Texas. The 12-member jury discussed the case for nearly three hours on Wednesday afternoon before coming to a unanimous conclusion to give him a life sentence. He will be eligible for parole after 30 years.

Prosecutor Sherre Thomas argued that Wesley Mathews’ testimony, in which he claimed that Sherin Mathews had accidentally choked on milk, was full of fabrications. Testimonies and medical records prove that it was “medically impossible for a child who is three years old to stand up and choke to death”.

Thomas said Mathews was a liar. “And when he killed her, he panicked,” WFAA TV quoted the prosecutor as saying. “There is nothing left of her, her teeth had fallen out. He covered his crime. He got away with that.” She said Wesley Mathews cleaned himself up after the girl’s death, and turned off his phone’s location to hide his crime.

Defence attorney Rafael De La Garza had argued that the accused was a concerned father who panicked when his daughter choked to death. He had told the jury that prosecutors were unable to prove his client had killed Sherin Mathews, and claimed he was only guilty of not calling the 911 emergency services. “This is something he will live with for the rest of his life,” PTI quoted the attorney as saying. After the verdict was read out, De La Garza called the sentencing “cruel and unusual punishment”.

The case

Sherin Mathews’ parents reported her missing on October 7, 2017, less than a year after they adopted her from India. They claimed that she went missing after Wesley Mathews made her stand in the backyard of their house at 3 am as punishment for not drinking her milk. After authorities found her body two weeks later, Wesley Mathews admitted to the police that he had moved the child’s body but claimed she had choked on milk in the family’s garage.

Early in January 2018, the Dallas County medical examiner found that Sherin Mathews had died from homicidal violence, which led prosecutors to charge Wesley Mathews with murder.

During the sentencing trial, Wesley Mathews said he had panicked after his daughter’s death and had wrapped her body in a blue trash bag and dumped it in a culvert so that she would be close to home.

In November 2017, the police had charged Sherin Mathews’ foster mother Sini Mathews with child abandonment after her husband told investigators that they had left the girl alone on the night of her death. Sini Mathews’ case was dismissed in March after her guilt could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt.