A NY father has admitted he beat his 21-month-old daughter to death with a baseball bat because she was getting too much attention.
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According to a report in the Daily Mail, the accused identified as Ryan Lawrence, pleaded guilty to first degree murder at the Onondaga County court.
Lawrence then “placed her body and the baseball bat in a prepared fire pit for hours” before throwing the girls’ remains into the Inner Harbor, which feeds into Syracuse’s Onondaga Lake.
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick told CBS affiliate WRGB the young girl had battled and beaten cancer in her short life, describing her as a fighter.
The Syracuse father charged with the death of his baby daughter pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
Maddox Lawrence was at the center of an AMBER alert February 21, 2016.
Authorities tell PEOPLE that Maddox had spent the previous year with cancer and beat the disease into submission. The toddler’s burnt body was found by police divers 36 hours after the crime.
‘But it was expensive, the treatment, and it was time-consuming.
Lawrence told to authorities that he was jealous of all the attention Maddox received, “as opposed to the attention he was getting”, Fitzpatrick said. “Maddox, I love you honey”. “The family really articulated clearly today that to have him stand up in court and admit what he did was meaningful”.
The child’s mother – Morgan Lawrence – and her family were in court on Thursday when the plea agreement was entered.
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24-year old Ryan Lawrence will be given a sentence of 25 years to life, which is less than the maximum punishment of life without parole. “They wanted to see that happen”.
