DALLAS (KRLD) - Wesley Mathews has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child by omission in the death of his adopted daughter Sherin Mathews.
Today began with heated cross-examination from prosecutors on Mathews' previous statements and testimony.
Mathews said at that time he regretted the actions he took after 3-year-old Sherin died. Mathews initially told police that Sherin disappeared on October 7, 2017 after he left her outside the family’s home around 3 a.m., as punishment for not drinking her milk, he said. He then waited five hours to contact authorities. Mathews then led Richardson Police on a wild goose chase knowing where her body was the entire time.
At one point during the hearing. Mathews commented it wasn't fair he was alive while Sherin is dead. Lead prosecutor Jason Fine called him on that asking if he would just take a life sentence, Mathews responded by saying it was up to the jury and he would take what they gave him.
Mathews testified that his daughter Sherin choked on milk, and despite his efforts to save her, she died. Instead of calling police, however, he panicked and says he was overtaken by fear that CPS would destroy his family, so he put Sherin's body in a bag and drove until he found a culvert to put her body in.
During cross-examination of Mathews, Fine told the defendant, “you told investigators Sherin’s death was a mistake but by your own words, you caused the death of your daughter and put her lifeless body in a trash bag and disposed of her. I don’t call that a mistake, I call it murder.”
Later in closing arguments, Fine told jurors, “Sherin’s little body was so badly decomposed, due to the actions of this defendant, the medical examiner could not determine an official cause of death which could have dramatically changed the way we were able to prosecute this case.”