The murder conviction and life sentence have been upheld for Wesley Mathews of Richardson.
Mathews pleaded guilty to the Oct. 7, 2017 murder of his three year old adopted daughter Sherin Mathews. A jury sentenced Mathews to life in prison
The case captivated the public and swung wildly as Mathews' stories about the possible fate of the girl changed.
The first hint of trouble came when Mathews reported the girl was missing 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 Mathews suggested that it was possible coyotes had carried the girl off. But the story changed two weeks later after the decomposed body of the child was found in a culvert, not far from the family home.
Both Mathews and his wife Sini Mathews were arrested on charges related to the death. Prosecutors later dropped their case against Mrs. Mathews.
The Richardson man ultimately admitted to a murder charge and testified during his sentencing hearing.
At one point during his testimony, Mathews commented it wasn't fair he was alive while Sherin is dead. Lead prosecutor Jason Fine pounced on the statement asking if Mathews 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."
In the appeal, Mathews raised four points challenging the admission of certain evidence. In his remaining two issues, "he argues that his life sentence violates the Eighth Amendment and that the trial court denied his common law right to allocution." according to the ruling.
All points were denied.
"I believe the 5th Court has accurately talked about most of the facts in the record. I did not see anything that jumped out at me as a factually wrong statement." said Mike Casillas, Mathews appellate attorney. However, he was troubled by testimony by a nurse during the sentencing hearing that he feels inflamed the jury. "Punishment, even in a criminal case, is not supposed to be something about revenge. It's supposed to be reason and it's supposed to be society's stating it's opinion that 'this type of crime deserves this type of punishment."
The testimony, Casillas feels, skewed the jury.
The case may still be appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in the form of a petition for discretionary review, something Casillas feels has a less than 10 percent chance of being granted.
