'I hope you die in jail'
2008-04-04 16:10
New York - A man was sentenced to the maximum 29 years in prison on Thursday for the death of his seven-year-old stepdaughter, who was bound to a chair, starved and forced to urinate in a litter box before she was killed by a fatal blow to the head.
The judge handed down the sentence after a prosecutor said that 29-year-old Cesar Rodriguez was "devoid of all morality and inhumanity" and that he never expressed remorse for the death of Nixzmary Brown.
After Rodriguez was sentenced, someone in the court room shouted, "I hope you die in jail." Another cried out, "Murderer".
In a short statement, Rodriguez told the judge: "I loved Nixzmary. I can honestly say that I'm being accused of something I didn't do." His lawyer blamed Nixzmary's mother for the little girl's death, echoing the defence that he used at the trial this year.
Jeffrey Schwartz said his client had been unjustly portrayed as a monster and was in fact an "angel" who tried to do the right thing when it came to his family.
"He took the blame for so much more than he actually did," Schwartz said. The defence said it would appeal.
Child malnourished
The case shocked the city and led to changes in New York City's child welfare agency after caseworkers overlooked signs of abuse. The girl was so malnourished before she died that she weighed only 16kg - about half the weight of an average girl her age.
Rodriguez dodged a murder conviction at his trial last month but was convicted of the lesser manslaughter count. He received the maximum 25 years on manslaughter and four more years for additional lesser counts.
Her mother is expected to face a separate murder trial later this year.
- AP